(loud thud)
(loud whoosh)
- It's been an interesting three weeks
at this years Giro d'Itailia,
so we thought we'd take a little look back at
some of our most memorable moments.
These are in no particular order,
and I'm sure you've got plenty of your own.
Feel free to add them in the comments below afterwards.
We'll start, though, on stage three.
Italian champion, Elia Viviani,
was relegated after winning the stage.
For what the communique generally says
as irregular movement in the sprint.
Roughly translated, that means that Viviani
might of got away with this first move,
but when Moschetti tried to come past him again,
the Deceuninck-Quick-Step man came of his line,
and he was relegated.
And the stage awarded to Fernando Gaviria
of UAE Team Emirates who didn't look
particularly happy about it on the podium.
That was about as good as the Giro got though, for Gaviria.
The stage nine time trial from Riccione to San Marino
finished at the top of a 12 kilometer climb.
There's a lot of talk going into this stage
whether it was worth changing from your time trial bike
to your road bike for the climb.
Cue a disastrous comedy of errors
between Victor Campenaerts European time trial champion
and his mechanic.
Little bit more practice needed there me thinks
or a little bit more work down climbing
on the time trial bike.
Next up, Damiano Cima's stage victory
for Nippo-Vini Fantini
on one of their Giro's long, long flat stages.
We thought it was going to be a bit of a snooze fest
until about three kilometers to go.
Normally, their packed in, break goes,
gets given an advantage,
gets reeled in, sprint.
Not on this occasion.
The breakaway absolutely gassed it
with about 40 kilometers to go.
Almost doubled their advantage and held on to the finish
with Cima taking probably one of the most thrilling
Giro stage victories for a very, very long time.
If you're a souvenir hunter,
Trek-Segafredo's Giulio Ciccone gave one lucky recipient
the equivalent of when the baseball
or the cricket ball depending on where you are in the world
goes into the crowd.
Now, Ciccone was one of the men
of this year's Giro taking
the king of the mountain's jersey
on the opening stage at time trial
getting into multiple breakaways.
He briefly gave that jersey away to one of his teammates
before going on to take a fantastic stage victory
to Ponte di Legno.
His emotional, passionate victory salute
saw him cast his glasses off into the crowd.
We're not too sure if he realized
he'd done it himself.
Primoz Roglic, the man, won the opening stage
a time trial he fired that up with a second stage
victory on stage nine
and we were all pretty much sitting there
waiting for him to reclaim the Maglia Rosa
in the mountains and go all the way to Verona.
Unfortunately it all started to come unraveled
for the Slovenian on stage 15.
He had a bike change.
His team manager stopped for a natural break
at the wrong moment when the racing was on
and he then crashed on a descent
only to be saved from going over the edge by this barrier.
Always philosophical is Primoz
and he said afterwards that luckily,
he took most of the brunt with his face
and he doesn't have to ride his bike with his face.
God love him.
Now, the big ouch moment though of the Giro
has to come from Pascal Ackermann of Bora-Hansgrohe
who went down in a crash on stage ten
and we saw the big german rolling into the finish
looking like this.
Now, most people have excused him of pulling
the rip cord and heading home
as a lot of the sprinters did
but he pushed it through the mountains.
He persevered.
He reclaimed that Ciclamino jersey
and as Ackermann said afterwards,
his team don't quit.
- I think that's not a question
because we always stay the whole race.
We are not a team like we say, okay we just go
one or two stage.
If we go there we try to finish alls of the race.
- Next up it's Matteo Montaguti who demonstrated
his weight saving leg building saddle alternative.
Now, the Androni Giocattoli rider
was seeing riding along like this.
It's enough to make your eyes water.
Primoz Roglic was penalized ten seconds when
two overexcited fans decided to give him a push.
Whether he didn't realize what they were doing
we will never know but the riders will tell you
that they don't like interference.
So we say to you, the fans, go out, enjoy the atmosphere,
but don't run alongside the riders or push them.
Imagine if that three weeks work
had been undone by one small push.
He did manage to get back onto the podium.
When Richard Carapaz rolled into Verona's
historic amphitheater
the end of the final days time trial
he crowned a historic moment in sport.
A man from humble beginnings
we are sure he will now go on
to inspire a whole generation of Ecuador cyclists
to follow in his footsteps.
Finally we'll go with Esteban Chaves who went on
to take a fantastic stage victory for Mitchelton-Scott
at San Martino di Castrozza.
The big smiling Colombian looked back
to his brilliant best and he crossed the line
and made a b-line immediately for his mom and dad.
(sighs)
Love it.
Now, that's it.
I'm sure there are many more moments
that you could pick out from this year's
Giro d'Italia.
Feel free to leave them in the comments section below.
See you soon.