In the Tour of Italy, Egan Bernal showed the first signs of weakness. The pink jersey could not follow Simon Yates and Joao Almeida on the steep final climb. The stage victory was for 34-year-old hard man Dan Martin (won now stages in the TDF, Vuelta, and the Giro for the first time) Belgian Remco Evenepoel crashed in the penultimate descent but battles on. Egan Bernal actually started to drift 3 kilometers from the top of the very tough “Sega di Ala” an 11km beast of a climb, and thus proved to everyone’s surprise that his overall victory is far from within. Other competitors such as Hugh Carthy, Aleksandr Vlasov, and Giulio Ciccone would not experience the revolution from the front row: they had been thrown overboard for some time and would get a twist.
Other competitors such as Hugh Carthy, Aleksandr Vlasov, and Giulio Ciccone would not experience the battle of the GC men from the front row: they had been thrown overboard for some time a
Yates and the reborn Almeida were the strongest favorites, but they just fell short for the day’s victory. Daniel Martin had slipped early into the break of the day and our Irishman did not succumb to all his toughness. He won before Almeida and Yates, who takes 53 seconds back from Bernal !! Since there are still two mountain stages and a time trial on the program, a complete turnaround is still possible.
