Giro Stage 19: Fireworks, Anger and Betrayal!

Stage 19, with over 5000m of elevation,  had everything — beauty, pettiness, fury, and even betrayal! 

Sepp Kuss took the win with a late attack on the final climb, completing a commendable Grand Tour treble for the Visma rider.

Having taken a more measured approach to the stage, he had enough in the tank to overhaul Giulio Ciccone inside 2km to go.

But the stage will be remembered even more for what happened before the finish. Einer Rubio and Ciccone had struck a deal in the break: Ciccone would take the KOM points, and Rubio would get the Red Bull kilometre sprint. 

Ciccone was determined all day to get the maximum KOM points to take the jersey off of Vingegaard, who sat in the main peloton some 2 minutes behind. 

“I spoke with Ciccone,” Rubio said. “He said he would take the mountains points, and I even helped them pull so that afterwards the idea was that I would take the Red Bull Kilometre. But they were clever. They took both.”

But Ciccone’s Lidl-Trek teammate Derek Gee-West, who sat in 6th on GC, out-sprinted Rubio and Michael Storer, Gee’s GC rival, for the Red Bull sprint. Obvious GC contender move. Perhaps though he wasnt party to Ciccone’s deal with Rubio?

What followed was just awesome. Rubio, feeling betrayed, then beat Ciccone to the summit of the Falzarego mountain in a sprint for mountain points.

Ciccone, quite well known for his highly strung emotions,  was visibly angered, remonstrating with Rubio. He then launched an unplanned attack – purely driven by anger –  and  continued alone on the descent, carving out a one-minute lead — not for glory, purely out of wounded pride. He admitted later that this was the case, saying that he took more than a few corners slightly riskier than he normally would.

And it was pure madness. As his lead grew he became visibly more uncontrolled in the saddle, his legs beginning to give way. Ahead lay a tour, 9% 5km climb. And never all the planning that would have gone on in the Trek-Lidl team meeting the night before. Best made plans and all that…

In the end, he couldn’t get the win. Kuss overtook him and Gee-West came in a few seconds behind, Ciccone in third. Yet had Ciccone waited for his teammate at the top of the Falzarego, instead of attacking, they may have been able to take the stage through tactical moves, move Gee-West closer to the GC podium, and get more points for the Italian hothead in the KOM classification.

Rubio didn’t hide his feelings afterwards: “They don’t keep their word. It’s cycling, but sometimes you have to be human first.” And he is right. 

Ciccone was equally unapologetic, at least to the cameras. Maybe he was to Gee-West in the bus.

I loved it all though. It was so fascinating to see the script ripped up, to see these men racing not according to a plan, but from nothing more than pure emotion. It’s all too missing these days in modern pro cycling, where everything is weighed up and, let’s be honest, a little too boring.

A crazy, brilliant day at the Giro!