Davide Bais, a Contador rookie, wins the Apennines

The Gran Sasso, a ski resort in the Apennines, in the Abruzzo area, enjoys more of a war fame than a cyclist, although Pantani and some other big firms have won there. By order of Hitler himself, on September 12, 1943, a daring German commando operation freed Benito Mussolini, dismissed by the Fascist Grand Council and confined in the Hotel Imperatore. And there the stage climbed through wide, open, green valleys under gray skies to the white summit: to Campo Imperatore.

Remco Evenepoel, emperor in a pink tunic from the first day, voluntarily gave it to the fourth. Would you recover it to seventh, in the first mountain arrival of this Giro? The answer is no. Neither Remco recovered it, with the same voluntariness of the previous abandonment, nor Roglic proposed to take over. Nor did anyone among the other illustrious move. So Andreas Leknessund kept the pink garment for another day and will probably keep it until the time trial on Sunday, when he will return it, more than likely still, to Evenepoel.

“niente”. “niente” did not occur. Three obscure and hard-working men, after quickly losing a fourth (Henok Mulubrham), gave themselves a 212-kilometre beating in the second longest stage of the Giro (218), which led Davide Bais (Eolo Kometa) to victory ahead of Karel Vacek and Simone Petrilli, who became a virtual leader. But, from behind, the peloton, who would lose 3:10 at the end after having been more than 11 minutes behind, did not have an altered pulse. Evenepoel and Roglic, sheltered in the upper area, staged a mutual non-aggression pact. Not out of chivalry, which is irrelevant, but out of prudence and foolishness.

Not even in the last three kilometers of the endless but very long climb. Not even, we say, then, when in the last 4,000 meters the ramps were getting steeper to gradually go from 6.6% to 13%, did a leaf move in the large troop. In the final 20 (or so) meters, the Belgian and the Slovenian made a small show, a braggart childishness, which did not give them a tenth of a second in relation to themselves and the others. Still sheathed fangs were bared softly.

Nor was passivity so rare. It has happened many other times in similar circumstances.. While waiting for the timed race on Sunday, in which the applicants will have no choice but to put everything on the spit, none of them wanted to risk the slightest. Sunday closes the first week of the race with the first big balance, still cautious but significant, by everyone.

Duel in the General

Everything remains the same. Although the road, like life, can take many turns, the truth is that it remains focused on the Evenepoel-Roglic duel. A struggle, at the expense of mishaps that, as has already been seen, can always have its hateful role, between a rider with proven certainties in the most demanding scenarios (Roglic) and another who, although he signed up for the Tour of Spain, it must be certified in ports of more than 2,000 meters of altitude.

The Gran Sasso (2,130) was the first. But as long as it is high and initiatory, it has a relative value as a reference. Evenepoel is second overall, 28″ behind. Paret-Peintre, third, 30″ behind. Almeida, fourth, 1:00 behind. Roglic, fifth, at 1:12.