Bruyneel slams gravel stage in Giro d’Italia: "If you want pro cycling to become a circus…"

A gravel stage like this doesn’t belong in a grand tour, Bruyneel argued. “If you want professional cycling to be a show, a circus, then I agree these kinds of stages should be included. But if I put myself in the shoes of a manager, a team director, or a sponsor who’s investing a lot, then the perspective changes. We’re talking about road cycling. That’s on asphalt. Strade Bianche is great, but everyone knows you're riding on gravel. In Paris-Roubaix, everyone knows you’ll be riding cobbles.”

But apparently, if you want to win a grand tour, you need to be able to handle those roads too. Primoz Roglic gave it a solid effort but finished over two minutes behind stage winner Wout van Aert after crashing and suffering a flat tire. “We might have seen one of the top favorites lose the Giro. Sure, you can crash on a descent or lose time in crosswinds. But this increases the chance of mechanical issues, and there’s nothing you can do about it. In hindsight, this could have been the decisive stage of the Giro.”

The general classification has been thoroughly shaken up. Del Toro currently holds the pink jersey, with Juan Ayuso in second, despite also having crashed, just like Roglic. It’s a 1–2 for UAE, while Roglic now sits in 10th place. But nothing is over yet, not even for the Slovenian. “You’ve got Del Toro, then Ayuso at 1:13, and Roglic is 1:12 behind Ayuso, those are the two top favorites. That’s significant, but far from decisive. We’ll see, but Primoz will have to race aggressively now,” says Johan Bruyneel, former team director of Lance Armstrong.

The Belgian is a big fan of Del Toro. He sees the young Mexican suddenly in a brilliant position. “We don’t know how long he’ll be able to hold on. Maybe he can last the full three weeks, it happens sometimes. He’s clearly a top talent; he won the Tour de l’Avenir. In his first year, he already showed that he’s the real deal. He’s come into this Giro with no pressure, and he has incredible legs. If you saw how he nearly dropped Wout in Siena, Wout was really on the ropes.”

The strength of the 21-year-old climber is genuinely impressive. Bruyneel points out that Del Toro now has a solid lead over riders who previously didn’t even consider him a threat. But now, he’s a name to be reckoned with. “Even if I were one of the favorites, I’d have little confidence. When someone with his talent takes the lead, you don’t just take it back from him. There are no expectations, no one expects him to win the Giro. Except for him: he’s going to see how far he can go and whether he can hold on until Rome. That’s what he said.”