The stage was diffucult, the result predictable, the execution excellent and the aftermath painful

The arrival in Jesi showed a circuit with steep walls in the lands of Michele Scarponi.

When asked a couple of hours before the stage who would win, I stated that Van der Poel would have attacked with the whole group marking him, Girmay would have been stuck to VDP’s wheel and would have won the stage…. if only I had placed bets on this outcome.

Girmay won the stage on Van Der Poel with Vincenzo Albanese in third

Girmay executed perfectly and VDP showed a gesture of fairplay with a thumbsup at the arrival….

Then the incident:

Girmay is rather new to the game being just 20 and has won very few stages with this being the most important in his career. His enthusiasm was so high that when opening the Prosecco Magnum, he shot the cork right in his eye and ended up in hospital and was forced to abandon the morning after

good luck to Girmay

The game

This is the year of the rookies: Luca Canziani’s Il Ciclista per caso won the stage bouncing from 19th to 6th by scoring 112 points. He is the first of the rookies so far. Will he make it to Verona?

The top 7 teams all have Girmay who scored 96 points so far. but now he is out of the game. Time for somone else to gain the points left on the table by Girmay

Chiara Abbattista’s AbbaTeam lost 5 point to the Monkey. Now the monkey is cahsing you by only 10 points. Three teams have already been passed by the Random team Monkey: Michelangelo’s Michelangelo Alessandro Mariani’s VanPoppeDaPaura and Beatrice Andreola’s MIGROS

Who else will be beaten by the monkey?

The mountains

Chiara Abbattista’s AbbaTeam has lost points to the monkey but can take some relief on the mountains where she wins the stage in company of Mattia Zoccarato’s Salamini Beretta but they both scored only 3 points so the overall is unchanged

The Results

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