Home > News

Geraint Thomas back in pink after first summit finish of the Giro’s final week

Derek Gee in yet another breakaway

Photo by: Sirotti
May 23, 2023
Share on SMS

Geraint Thomas and João Almeida rose to the top of the Giro d’Italia table on Tuesday’s first summit finish of the 106th Giro d’Italia’s difficult final week. Almeida is the third Portuguese rider to win a Giro stage. Thomas took the pink jersey for the second time in the race, this time from Frenchman Bruno Armirail. Primož Roglič couldn’t hang with the top two. The irrepressible, indefatigable Derek Gee was in the breakaway again; he moved up two spots on GC to 30th.

The Course

Mountains were on order on Tuesday: one Cat. 3, two Cat. 2s and two Cat. 1s, including the summit finish of Monte Bondone, 22.7 km of 6.4 percent. There would be just over 5000 meters of climbing.

If there was one guy who was going to make Tuesday’s immense breakaway, it was Derek Gee. He was part of a raft of 24 riders who shook free early. Stage winner Ben Healy was the first to peak Cat. 1 Passo di Santa Barbara and second over Cat. 3 Passo Bordala, jumping into the KOM lead.

At the first intermediate sprint of the day, Gee snagged six points, pulling him closer to Jonathan Milan in the points jersey competition.

With 88 km to ride Gee and Healy were a minute behind two Astana chaps, Vadim Pronskiy and Christian Scaroni, who had dashed away on Cat. 2 Matassone, and 3:30 ahead of the peloton. The rain started on Matassone’s descent.

The Astana duo tips over Matassone 1:30 over its breakmates.

With Pronskiy and Scaroni doing their thing up the road on the long penultimate climb of Serrada, the breakaway chase behind split, Gee and Healy part of Group 2. Minutes behind, Jumbo-Visma toiled to reduce the pink jersey group. The Astana boys were brought back. Gee struggled to hold on. Another Frenchman, Aurélien Paret-Peintre, became the virtual maglia rosa. There was a fine balance between break and pink bunch: 4:25 with 40 km and Monte Bondone to ride.

Monte Bondone

The rain had eased off, but atop Bondone it was tipping down and peals of thunder cast a shadow over the day’s conclusion. The break’s gap was still 3:30 as Bondone began, Jumbo-Visma continuing to drive the favourites group. Would the winner be one of the 14 fellows left?

Gee trickled off the back and was sopped up by the now UAE-Emirates-led pink jersey group with 15 km to climb. Armirail was hanging tough. The gap was under a minute with 10 km to go. Armirail cracked at that point.

Armirail pops with 10 km to go.

With the last of the fugitives sopped up, Jay Vine’s acceleration at the business end of the race shelled out many riders. Geraint Thomas, Sepp Kuss, João Almeida, Eddie Dunbar his teammate and Filippo “Not Ganna” Zana remained.

Almeida whipped up the pace, jettisoning Zana with 6 km remaining. The Portuguese ace attacked a kilometer later and Kuss worked to bring his Slovenian captain over. First Dunbar and then Rogla lost contact. Thomas bridged to Almeida.

The duo went under the 2-km banner with 30 seconds on Roglič. Almeida won the sprint and the maximum bonus seconds. Roglič finished 25 seconds back. It was the performance of a lifetime for Irishman Dunbar.

With a profile that goes downhill for the first 165 km before 32 km of flat road, Wednesday is the last sprinters’ opportunity before Rome.

2023 Giro d’Italia Stage 16
1) João Almeida (Portugal/UAE-Emirates) 5:53:27
2) Geraint Thomas (Great Britain/Ineos) s.t.
3) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Jumbo-Visma) +0:25
38) Derek Gee (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +13:35

2023 Giro d’Italia GC
1) Geraint Thomas (Great Britain/Ineos) 67:32:35
2) João Almeida (Portugal/UAE-Emirates) +0:18
3) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Jumbo-Visma) +0:29
30) Derek Gee (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +39:04