Benson Bulletin: Giro d'Italia stage 16 🇮🇹
Pre-race favourites fall by the wayside as UAE crack and new challengers emerge
Hi Subscribers,
Today, we saw the two pre-race favorites fall by the wayside at the Giro d’Italia, allowing a new set of challengers to emerge.
It was a profoundly disappointing day for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, as Juan Ayuso was dropped on the penultimate climb, and Isaac Del Toro narrowly retained the maglia rosa.
Primož Roglič crashed for the fourth time and left the race in a Red Bull team car, but Richard Carapaz, Simon Yates, Derek Gee, and Michael Storer all climbed the rankings.
As ever, there’s a lot to get through this evening, and I’ll also have a major transfer story tomorrow morning.
Don’t forget, you can follow my Giro coverage on my Instagram account, and to coincide with the race, I’ve set up a ✨ special 20% sale ✨ on annual subscriptions. Just click on the link below to sign up. For roughly £1 a week, you get all the stories on my Substack, including all the transfer exclusives.
Daniel 🫶
UAE cling on as Ayuso disappears and Del Toro cracks 🇦🇪
Isaac del Toro remains in the maglia rosa by a narrow 26 seconds, but on stage 16 of the Giro d’Italia, the Mexican faced a tough reality check. This was a challenging experience for both the young rider and his team, who must now be viewed as vulnerable in the overall classification.
The preamble heading into the day was that stage 16 would finally decide who the GC leader at UAE Team Emirates-XRG was - whether it was the young pretender, Del Toro, or the pre-race favourite, Juan Ayuso. Some of the language around the topic almost seemed to suggest that whoever was selected would be anointed the Giro winner by default, especially with those rather lazy comparisons between Del Toro and Tadej Pogačar. Still, the mountains of the Grand Tour do not lie, especially in the final week, and what we saw on Monday’s stage was not far off a complete capitulation.
There were warning signs on the Candriai climb when Ayuso returned to his team, for what felt like an eternity, to remove his gloves. This coincided with Ineos upping the pace, resulting in a lengthy chase with only one domestique available to assist the Spanish rider. Worse was to follow when Ayuso cracked with 42km to go, and once again had just one helper, as Brandon McNulty, Adam Yates, and Rafał Majka surrounded Del Toro.
With Ayuso gone, the question of leadership at UAE was finally settled, but on the final slopes to the finish at San Valentino, Del Toro began to go backwards. He could follow Simon Yates’s attack but couldn’t match Carapaz’s surge and was then left behind by Simon Yates as the British rider sensed blood. There was a rally in the final 2km of the climb, with Del Toro limiting his losses, but his 26-second lead in the GC could be overturned in the next 24 hours.
Still in pink but with his weaknesses fully exposed, one can call into question much about the management of the UAE roster in this year’s Giro, from the speculation regarding Ayuso’s relationship with the rest of his team to the decision not to support one rider much sooner in the race.
Everything appears to be a poor decision when you lose, but for me, the telling moments weren’t about today but rather the steps that led to Del Toro’s inability to follow. I think he raced his most composed day of the Giro so far today, but all the time spent chasing Bernal in week two, when he could have employed his team, and the needlessly time in the wind all add up. Those accelerations for bonus seconds leave their mark.
Perhaps those incidents wouldn’t have made a massive difference to the outcome of the race, and Del Toro might have cracked eventually. Still, those small bursts of energy certainly contributed to what we witnessed today.
As for Ayuso, he is currently 17th in the general classification, and his role in stage 17 will be fascinating to watch, assuming he starts. For Del Toro, there is no shame in how this Giro is unfolding. He entered the race with limited GC experience over the three weeks, but has introduced himself with some astonishing riding. His challenge is certainly not over either, but with many tough stages remaining, holding onto the maglia rosa will be a daunting task.