After a big drama, the Queen stage of Giro d'Italia was shortened from 199 km to 75.0 km with the exclusion of Grand St Bernard Pass prior to the Croix de Couer, making a fairly easy day for the GC riders.
On a day shortened by the extreme weather protocol, it was as you were for Geraint Thomas and Primoz Roglic in a subdued Maglia Rosa contest behind a three-man injection of excitement. In Switzerland, Thibaut Pinot and Jefferson Alexander Cepeda engaged in a leaders’ tiff, quarrelling through the valley and up the mountain, only for Einer Rubio, the neutral party, to leave both behind at the death.
The Tour of the Alps is the perfect preparation race before the Giro d'Italia, so the INEOS Grenadiers, down from their high altitude training camp, sent their Giro d'Italia climbing team for a tune up. Geraint Thomas, Pavel Sivakov, Laurens De Plus, Thymen Arensman, Pavel Sivakov and Tao Geoghegan Hart will all line up in Italy next month but it was unclear who the leader would be here in this mountainous .Pro race featuring Aleksandr Vlasov, Jack Haig and Hugh Carthy. In this first stage we received some answers, as the team effort of the INEOS train brought back Jack Haig before the finish and Geoghegan Hart was the man to finish the job in the last kilometre on a steep gradient.