Kooij crowned King of Rome after perfect lead-out from van Aert and Affini; Yates wins Giro for Visma | Lease a Bike

A flat final stage in a Grand Tour usually means not much happens in the opening phase. Once again, there were the usual formalities and festivities. Visma | Lease a Bike appeared at the start wearing special pink jerseys after traveling to Rome by plane on Saturday, just like the rest of the peloton.

It wasn't all a celebration for the team. On Saturday evening, the tragic news came that Daisy Gesink, the partner of former cyclist Robert Gesink, passed away after a short illness, which naturally hit the Dutch team hard.

The Giro organization held a minute's silence, with the riders from Visma | Lease a Bike and Daisy's nephew, Gijs Leemreize, taking their places at the front. The team's riders wore pink jerseys with the words ‘with Daisy in our thoughts’ printed on them.

After the neutralized start, the peloton headed for the Vatican, where the Pope was waiting for them. The riders wearing the four classification jerseys were allowed to pass by the Pope, who also briefly addressed the peloton before they left the Vatican.

The peloton then headed for the coast, where it was time for the traditional photo moments and some fun. Everyone was captured on camera at the front and rear of the peloton, and we even saw a Danish attack involving Mads Pedersen, among others, just for fun.

Upon reaching the coast, Steven Kruijswijk and co. picked up the pace again so that the riders would not arrive too late for pizza in Rome. Once we had the Italian capital back in sight, there were already some attacks: Michael Hepburn (Jayco AlUla), Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ), Josef Cerny (Soudal Quick-Step), Andrea Pietrobon (Polti VisitMalta), Martin Marcellusi (VF Group-Bardiani), and Alessandro Verre (Arkéa—B&B Hotels) gained a small lead.

Visma | Lease a Bike, Picnic PostNL, and Alpecin-Deceuninck controlled the race on behalf of their fast riders, with the former also managing to keep the pink jersey

Q36.5 and Decathlon AG2R eventually added a man to the group, ending the story of the six leaders with about six to seven kilometers to go. From that moment on, the sprinters made their presence felt at the front of the street circuit in Rome.

Alpecin-Deceuninck, Tudor, Decathlon AG2R, and the train of Van Aert, Affini, and Kooij were in excellent positions going into the final three kilometers. With two kilometers to go, there was a moment of uncertainty, which was ended by Affini's good turn at the front.

The Italian did a superb job, allowing van Aert to take over 500 meters from the finish. Then it was up to Kooij, who held the line perfectly and sprinted to victory, completing a perfect Visma | Lease a Bike race. Groves and Moschetti finished second and third.