Almeida wins in Monte Bondone on the day that Thomas recovers the pink jersey

The blast went off. Finally. And out of the rocketry came Joao Almeida as stage winner and Geraint Thomas as overall leader. Roglic, third in the stage, is also third overall. It was time, we say, for the masters to come out of the gate and take the bull by the horns.

The antecedents were so bland that the consequentials were necessarily promising. The Giro had run for the first two weeks on rough bacteriological, meteorological and traumatological roads. But the favorites hadn’t lifted a finger.

Evenepoel and Geoghegan had been beaten by the elements. The others, a small collection of survivors with band-aids and mercurochrome, had tried to weather the weather storms and purely cycling fears. No illustrious rider gave a pedal too far. The Giro was frightening and disappointing.. And bored.

So the third (and last) week, with the figures located according to the results of the two time trial stages of the first, without any other movement, was presented with the obligation to get the race out of the stagnation. Bugle call, cards face up and climb the Bondone (1,632 meters, 21.6 kms. of ascent to 6.7% of average slope and with a 15% of maximum), after having suffered four previous eroding ports. The Bondone, yes, incorporated into the greatest cycling epic since, in 1956, Charly Gaul crowned it between the snow and the blizzard at 10º below zero.

The whole stage was a long preparation for the peak moment. A prompt and large escape of 22 men, including the unruly Ben Healy scratching his dots on the mountain, Jonathan Lastra and Carlos Verona, made their way until, little by little, they lost their footing, breaking down one by one, in pairs. , until succumbing to the sustained march of a platoon with the Jumbo at the bow. The last to hold, 85 km. from the finish line, it was the Spaniards and Filippo Zana, who fell before the push of the select group, to which the Italian champion still clung on tooth and nail for a while. Rohan Dennis had already burst and Almeida's UAE had replaced the Jumbo in command of operations. It was drizzling.

When Almeida accelerated, with 6.5 km to go, there were only him, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo), Geraint Thomas (Ineos), Sepp Kuss (Jumbo) and Edward Dunbar (Jayco) in the group.. Only Thomas could join him. Now it was really raining. Roglic was biting Kuss’ saddle to try not to lose ground. Dunbar was doing the same with the Slovenian’s. The duo’s gap to the trio was slowly growing. The duo’s gap to the trio was slowly growing. Would they reach the one minute mark? No. The duo raced a bit in search of the stage win and the six-second bonus, and the trio came a bit closer. Almeida beat Thomas in the sprint. Roglic and Dunbar came within 25 seconds. Kuss, exhausted hero, at 1:03.

The cards are on the table. In the overall, Thomas leads Almeida by 18 seconds, Roglic by 29.. Only the three of them seem to be in a position to challenge for the final victory. Damiano Caruso, fourth, is 2:50 back. Roglic has faltered, but not enough to rule him out. There is still a lot of work to do. Especially on Friday, on the queen stage of the Three Tops of Lavaredo. And, on Saturday, on the Monte Lussari time trial.

The Giro woke up from its slumber and we with it. In a way, it’s started again.