Giro d’Italia week one review: who impressed and who disappointed?

After nine race days in the Giro d’Italia, the hierarchy is becoming clearer and clearer. The general classification is taking shape, and we also know which sprinters are best placed. It is time to start drawing up the balance sheet again. IDL Pro Cycling looks back on the first full Giro week and explains who impressed, and who did not. In short, who’s up and who’s down.

Visma | Lease a Bike’s transfer winter was initially described as something of a disappointment. There were no really big names brought in, while Simon Yates and Cian Uijtdebroeks both departed. On paper, Davide Piganzoli looked like the man best placed to fill that gap, but would you trust that responsibility to a young, inexperienced Italian?

After one Giro week, the answer seems to be a resounding yes. On Blockhaus, he already showed what he is made of with a strong turn at the front that caused plenty of outsiders to crack. But what he showed two days later was twice as impressive. On Corno alle Scale, only team leader Jonas Vingegaard and Felix Gall were able to finish ahead of him. Since leaving Polti VisitMalta, Piganzoli has made giant strides, and he looks set to become Vingegaard’s man in the coming weeks.

It is clear that this has not been Lidl-Trek’s Giro so far. Jonathan Milan arrived in Bulgaria as the sprinter to beat, but after three chances he still has nothing to show for it. Paul Magnier has simply had the better of him so far. The bright spot is Giulio Ciccone, who managed to take the pink jersey. But how painful was it to see him lose it again a day later, without any help from his team.

His hunt for stage wins has also been hampered by bad luck so far, because he is not getting any space from the GC riders. As for the overall standings, Derek Gee-West wants to improve on his fourth place from last year, but the start has been extremely sluggish. In Bulgaria he lost time through a heavy crash, and it was not much better on Blockhaus either. There was a bit of improvement on Sunday, but he is still only 14th, three minutes off the podium.

Tudor knew they would have a man for the general classification in Michael Storer. But Mathys Rondel was the wildcard. Of course, the 22-year-old Frenchman had already had an excellent spring, but this would be his first Grand Tour. So there was no pressure. Yet what the young climber has shown so far has surprised everyone. On Blockhaus he finished an impressive sixth.

Two days later he proved that it was no fluke with seventh place in the final mountain stage before the rest day. That now puts him seventh overall, five minutes behind pink jersey Afonso Eulálio, half a minute behind Jai Hindley and just one second behind Thymen Arensman. It may be a little early to talk about a podium contender, but who knows…

We could not leave him out, could we? Before the Giro he was billed as Jonas Vingegaard’s main challenger on the back of his spring performances, and on Blockhaus he tried bravely to follow the pace. He paid for that, though, and the young Italian had a small rethink about the pink jersey. In the stage to Fermo we then saw a very small sign of weakness, and that was clearly a warning sign.

On stage nine, Pellizzari was soon sitting at the back of the peloton. Was it bluffing? No, because before the really hard sections even began, the white jersey holder was dropped under the pace of Visma | Lease a Bike. He eventually came home 22nd, a minute and a half behind Vingegaard. In the standings he is now ninth, 2:16 behind Felix Gall. Teammate Jai Hindley is already three-quarters of a minute ahead as well. Can Pellizzari recover? We certainly hope so.

Slightly behind impressive youngsters like Eulálio and Rondel, a very young Spaniard is quietly riding a fantastic Giro. His father Joseba Beloki was once known as Lance Armstrong’s great challenger, but son Markel Beloki is making his own way too. It was quite surprising to see his name on the start sheet, but he is more than justifying his selection.

He has already finished in the top 20 five times in this Giro. On Blockhaus he finished in the same time as Sepp Kuss and Egan Bernal, and on Corno alle Scale he again held his own well, in a group containing riders such as Ben O’Connor. And Beloki is only 20 years old! The second-youngest rider in the peloton is 11th in the GC and is also showing he can surf into breaks intelligently. Is a surprise brewing?

On paper, Filippo Zana’s arrival at Soudal Quick-Step looked like a sensible move. The Italian likes attacking racing and can usually be given freedom for his climbing legs after Remco Evenepoel’s departure. A good fit, then. But the Belgian team did raise a few eyebrows when it was announced that, in the absence of the injured Mikel Landa, they would still ride for the general classification in the Giro.

With Zana. Of course, he finished 11th two years ago, which is a decent result. But should that really be the goal for Soudal Quick-Step? Maybe they knew something we did not, but right now the opposite seems true. The former Italian champion is 38th overall, 24 minutes down on the pink jersey. Zana has already won a Giro stage before, so his quality is not in doubt. Why not go for stage wins again? It is hard to understand.

What a turnaround! After the first days in Bulgaria, UAE Team Emirates-XRG were the big losers, with Marc Soler, Jay Vine and especially Adam Yates all abandoning. The GC plan could be thrown in the bin, and a battered team was left behind. Plans had to change, but they have done that with real style. Jhonatan Narváez started the celebration with a sprint win on stage four.

A day later, Igor Arrieta — while crashing and riding the wrong way — somehow took the team’s second victory in a row in Potenza. In the hilly stage to Fermo, the team then produced a brilliant display, with two men in the three-man break. It was a formality for Narváez to take his second win. It is nothing short of impressive how the team has turned a curse into a blessing.

The Thymen Arensman-Egan Bernal tandem is now a familiar one at Netcompany INEOS. So it was no surprise to see the duo again selected for the Giro d’Italia in pursuit of a strong GC result. And with Arensman sitting sixth overall after an unusually strong first week, things are going very well. But the Colombian has already shown plenty of cracks.

It was painful to watch sprinter Ben Turner having to give up his own chances to save his leader’s classification on stage four, when he should never have been dropped in the first place. And after losing three minutes on Blockhaus, Bernal seemed to know it himself too: he rode his best 40 minutes ever. A bizarre line, given how far he ended up behind his rivals. Will he move up? It needs to be much, much better.

This is a case of riding completely under the radar, but Lorenzo Milesi’s performances should not be ignored. The 24-year-old Italian may well be the most attacking rider of the first Giro week in Italy. It began with the stage to Cosenza, where he did mountains of work for Orluis Aular and more or less cracked every sprinter.

A day later, he himself finished a fine fourth in the tough hill stage to Potenza. On stage eight he was at it again, attacking and riding the slopes of Capodarco faster than anyone else. And a day later he was once again emptying himself for teammate Einer Rubio. Attacking, time trialling, working for others: every team wants a rider like Milesi.

From a Movistar standout to a Movistar flop. Enric Mas has already finished on the podium of the Vuelta a España four times, but outside his own country it just never seems to click. This Giro d’Italia was supposed to change that: he and his team said confidently that the podium was the target, and that he even wanted to fight for the pink jersey. Would this finally be the year?

Those ideas could be binned very quickly. On Blockhaus, Mas could not follow the best riders, or even the group behind them. A 31st-place finish was the result, 5:47 down on Vingegaard. The entire Movistar team had to drag him up the road. On Corno alle Scale it was painful to watch Pellizzari, already dropped early and struggling uphill, surge past the almost motionless Mas like a steam train. The Spaniard is now nearly 14 minutes behind in the pink jersey battle…