🎥 Rubio and Ciccone Giro row keeps bubbling after stage 19: “What he did was petty”

One of the most striking moments in stage 19 of the Giro d’Italia was the dispute between new mountains jersey wearer Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek and Movistar’s Einer Rubio. The two repeatedly got in each other’s way on the road, with Derek Gee-West — Ciccone’s teammate — also ending up in the final mix.

Afterwards, all the main characters gave their version to Eurosport. “I made an agreement with Lidl-Trek to work together,” Rubio said. “That way Ciccone could take the mountain jersey and I would get the Red Bull kilometre.” Rubio now leads that particular classification, which is worth a prize of 15,000 euros.

Only, what happened? Gee-West took the 10 bonus seconds there right out of Rubio’s hands. “I took part in the Red Bull sprint because Michael Storer and I were only a few seconds apart,” the Canadian explained. “And I do not know whether Rubio had made an agreement with someone else or something like that, but I thought it was a fair fight, so I went for it.”

That agreement did exist, but with Ciccone. “Only then they tried to play it smart and also take the Red Bull sprint. They did not keep their word. It may be cycling, but you also have to keep it human.”

Rubio was clearly seeking revenge and took the points off Ciccone on the next climb. “He was angry with me because of that Red Bull sprint,” the Italian sighed. “That was something for the GC riders. Then I made the mistake of trusting him for the mountain points, but what he did there was quite petty.”

After that climb, Ciccone immediately rode away from Rubio and the rest, but he was caught by Sepp Kuss. Gee-West ultimately finished second on the stage.