The end of the Corsa Rosa signalled the start of the season’s second half.
The third-largest Roman amphitheatre in the Peninsula, built nearly 2000 years ago and host of several memorable concerts over the years in the 20th and 21st century, the Arena di Verona was the finishing venue of the Giro d’Italia for the third time in history on Sunday afternoon.
Just like in 1984 and 2010, the race scheduled an individual time trial on the last day, whose only difficulty over its 17 kilometers was the Torricelle climb (4.5km, 4.6%). The best Deceuninck – Quick-Step rider on the general classification, Bob Jungels was also the last of the team’s riders to leave the start house and he managed to put in a solid effort at the end of a three wearing and intense weeks, which took the riders over a total distance of more than 3500 kilometers and dozens of classified climbs.
The Luxembourg Champion, who rode the Corsa Rosa for the third time in his career, averaged 44.639km/h, stopping the clock in 22:51, a result which slotted him into the top 20. Stage 21 put an end to Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s campaign, that saw our team come on three occasions close to victory and animate the race from the breakaway, with the likes of neo-pro Mikkel Honoré, who at the age of 22 completed his maiden Grand Tour, Pieter Serry of Eros Capecchi.
Sports director Klaas Lodewyck made a short analysis of our outing at the 102nd edition of the Giro d’Italia: “Coming into the race, our priority was to win a stage with Elia and we did on on stage 3, but he was relegated by the jury and that was quit a blow for the morale. We also targeted the overall with Bob, but unfortunately things didn’t work out as we had hoped. In spite of that, we continued to fight, be prominent in the race by going in breakaways and remained motivated and focused. It was difficult, two of our riders had to retire through injury, but we continued to race as a real team, and this is the most important thing.”
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele/ Getty Images
