1-0 for Ayuso! Spaniard wins first uphill finish in the Giro with a brilliant acceleration, Roglic takes the pink jersey

After a fairly chaotic stage on Thursday, which even saw a neutralization following a major crash, Friday marked the first true mountain stage. The 168 kilometers between Castel di Sangro and Tagliacozzo featured plenty of elevation, but all eyes were on the final climb, the first uphill finish of the race. Would it be a day for the breakaway? Or would we see the first real showdown between the GC contenders?

There was certainly a lot of interest in the early break, with many riders trying to make the move. Among them was Jay Vine, but Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe wasn’t having it, and Roglic’s team reeled the Australian back in. Without Vine, a group of seven eventually broke away: Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal Quick-Step), Paul Double (Jayco AlUla), Gijs Leemreize (Picnic PostNL), Alessandro Tonelli (Polti VisitMalta), Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani), and Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana). Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe kept them within reach.

It was Double who was the best-placed rider in the breakaway in the general classification. The 28-year-old Brit was 1 minute and 23 seconds behind pink jersey wearer Mads Pedersen at the start of the stage. With a lead of three and a half minutes halfway through the stage, Double could slowly start dreaming of the pink jersey. It was the same Double who powered his way to the full 18 mountain points on the tough Monte Urano, placing the Jayco AlUla rider in a virtual third place in the mountains classification.

On the descent of Monte Urano, we then saw quite a scare for Kaden Groves. The Australian, who had sprinted to victory in Naples the day before, misjudged a corner and shot straight ahead. The Alpecin-Deceuninck sprinter narrowly avoided a crash, and a smiling Groves later jokingly updated his teammates about the near-miss.

While Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe had been doing most of the work at the front (we had seen the strong Nico Denz leading for quite some time), Lidl-Trek also sent a man up to help, something we've seen more than once in this Giro. Mathias Vacek had already said before the stage that he was hoping to take the pink jersey, which would be possible with a stage win, as long as Roglic didn’t finish second. Little by little, the breakaway’s lead began to shrink, dropping to just under three minutes with 50 kilometers to go.

While Bardet was able to return fairly quickly, it took a bit longer for Gaudu. The Frenchman saw his entire team wait for him, and as a result, the Groupama-FDJ climber managed to rejoin the peloton just before the final climb began. As the riders reached the base of the final ascent, the seven breakaway riders were still ahead of the bunch, starting the climb with a lead of about a minute and a half.

With five kilometers to go, it was also over for the last breakaway riders, meaning the battle for the stage win would be fought among the big names of this Giro. A heavily reduced peloton hit the steep slopes of the final climb with three kilometers remaining. Romain Bardet wasn’t among them, after his crash earlier, the Frenchman had to drop off early.

It was Giulio Ciccone who really opened up the action with a strong acceleration. It didn’t stick, and a second attempt by the Lidl-Trek rider also failed. Then Egan Bernal made a move, with Del Toro and Ciccone immediately on his wheel. Primoz Roglic couldn’t respond right away, prompting Ayuso to launch his attack. With a single acceleration, he won the stage and put four seconds into Roglic. Del Toro finished second, followed by Bernal in third.