Why I will always love opportunistic breakaway wins, our special guest in Pisa, and more from my second week at the Giro d'Italia

Buongiorno from Switzerland! Yes it’s the Giro d’Italia but our rest day hotel is in Switzerland ahead of the Swiss stage. I’m sitting here writing whilst overlooking the beautiful Lake Maggiore, the impressive mountains and a clear blue sky on my rest day, a peaceful moment before it all begins again for week three.

Week two is behind us and it was another really good week at the Giro for me. It kicked off with the individual time trial, which was amazing to see Filippo Ganna execute as perfectly as he did, beating everyone by almost two minutes.

But the TT was also extra cool for us because we had a special guest on the ground with TNT Sports and Eurosport, Danish racing driver Tom Kristensen, who is universally regarded as the greatest Le Mans driver of all time, and ‘Mr Le Mans’ as he’s nicknamed is a huge cycling fan. He joined us at dinner for two nights in Pisa and even on our morning run club, and it was really special for me, because I went to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with my dad, my granddad and brother back in 2005, which was the 7th time of the nine times that Tom won, so it was like worlds colliding for me. Might I add, aside from his sporting endeavours, what an excellent and humble man.

As I say, he's a big cycling fan and a rider himself, but there's another cycling connection with Le Mans this year, because Sir Mark Cavendish is going to be the official starter of the race this year, joining legends like LeBron James, Zinedine Zidane, Brad Pitt and Roger Federer in starting that iconic race.

So that was a really nice way to start the week for me personally, but the racing really delivered too. Those wins for Jhonatan Narváez and Alec Segaert really stood out as wins for breakaways and opportunistic racing. With Segaert, it actually wasn't a last-minute opportunity, because he'd been planning it, but still, you've got to get the timing right and get in the right move and ultimately have the legs to pull it off. I just love the thrill and excitement of riders racing like that.

And then that stage that Alberto Bettiol won, that was another absolute thrill, and so good to see. I remember doing a sit-down interview with Bettiol before the Tour de France when it started in Florence in 2024, and we were talking about how he's a rider who doesn't win that many bike races, but when he does win, he wins really big. His first pro win was the Tour of Flanders after all! And I remember him telling me that he was one of the last romantic riders, someone who senses the race and rides on instinct more than numbers or data or new technology, and I think his win on Friday was a really beautiful example of that.

We were back into the mountains on Saturday, and the views at the top of that climb were spectacular, I've never seen anything like it in my life. For us media and TV, we had to take the gondola up to the top, and the finish was at about 2,100m, but we went up even further to about 2,700m where there was still snow in the mountains. It was really amazing up there. From the top you could see the Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, Gran Paradiso, amongst others.

The stage itself was obviously also a big one, with Jonas Vingegaard going into pink, but actually what stood out for me was Davide Piganzoli, what a brilliant signing for Visma-Lease a Bike and what an incredible ride. I think that also showed how many extra little tactical things go on in a race like this, with Piganzoli's job to sit on Felix Gall and make sure he didn't give him any help. He's already had some great results himself, but he's also now showing what an amazing domestique he's going to be, and well, already is!

Then the week ended in Milan, and wow, what can I say about Milan? That chase on the city circuit was so exciting, and reminded us just how complicated it is to catch a break on a circuit like that. There were also a lot of questions about why certain teams did and didn't chase, and when I spoke to Decathlon's DS Luke Roberts about why they didn't get involved for Tobias Lund, he basically said that he didn't think they'd win, so why contribute? Which I thought was really interesting. Maybe it was a bluff, or maybe it says something about how they're shifting energy to their overall ambitions with Gall, but either way, it's a really good example of how the racing gets complicated and unpredictable this far into a Grand Tour

Obviously the other story that has made as many headlines as the breakaway win is the GC neutralisation. To give you a bit of insight, on the ground we also just have to piece together the info about what's happening, so on that day we just got a WhatsApp message in our Giro group about the five kilometre rule, and then I heard from someone else the times would actually be taken at 16 kilometres, so it wasn't really clear.

Stages like that do definitely leave you thinking 'how could this have been prevented?'. Obviously teams have tools like Veloviewer and can look at the course and the road surface, but you don't actually know what it's going to be like once the barriers are up or when you're going at over 50kph, so I'm not sure if anyone could have made the decision any earlier. It was also clear to me that it was a super stressful and intense day not just for the riders but for the directors too, who were trying to hand out bottles, service mechanicals, and make sure their riders got back to the bunch, all whilst navigating the twisty turny roads in Milan. The pressure must have been incredible.

A race of opportunity and adaptability

In some ways, the Giro is going into the final week as we might have expected, with Jonas Vingegaard in pink, but actually, there have been loads of unexpected winners and stories and things have changed a lot since Bulgaria.

In many ways, week two was the week of the breakaway, and that wasn't by accident. When Fredrik Dversnes took that win in Milan, I spoke to the Uno-X director Michael Blaudzun and he told me that they'd been planning and hoping to try and outsmart the sprinters and win from that break, and that's what they did. The whole breakaway rode it really smart, and in the end I wanted all of them to get the stage win. It was really a day that they all worked for and deserved, not just a fluke or a mess up from the peloton. Everyone loves to back the breakaway and they've really delivered in this Giro.

The other really big thing for me has been how teams whose Giro maybe hasn't gone to plan have managed to turn it around and still find success. UAE Team Emirates-XRG are obviously the main one, losing Marc Soler, Adam Yates and Jay Vine on day two, ending up without a GC rider, but they've turned it around and already won four stages. It's a really good display of how you can make a new plan and still fight for something, and the importance of determination and not giving up even when things go wrong. I think it’s a good lesson and mentality to have in life too.

Similarly has been Movistar, who came in with overall hopes for Enric Mas, which hasn't really worked out for him, but they've been amazing, fighting for so many stage wins and Mas taking second on that day behind Narváez. So many people I've spoken to – and me included – really want to see Movistar win a stage, because they've been racing so boldly and have so many strong riders, not just Mas but also Einer Rubio, Lorenzo Milesi and Orluis Aular.

The final standout team has definitely been Bahrain Victorious and the way they defended pink. I wrote in my column last week that I thought Afonso Eulálio could hold pink until the end of the second week, and he did, which was amazing to see – not just for him but for the whole team too, with Segaert winning, and Giro veteran Damiano Caruso getting to make his mark on the race again. A big hats off to them – and I'm not just saying that because Afonso very kindly gifted me his special pink glasses!

Obviously the riders being strong and motivated is probably the biggest part of winning, but I think another important thing on the mental side is the role of the sports directors. Teams having fresh ideas in the car, like Movistar with Matt White, is really important, but it's also about having DSs who can guide riders and give them the space to believe that they can do it. Maxime Bouet at Lotto Intermarché has been a good example of that, because their team has had a really disastrous Giro with illness so they're down to only four riders, but he's been keeping the morale high and keeping everyone in good spirits. And the result was that even without their leaders, Toon Aerts sprinted to second on that stage to Novi Ligure, because Bouet had told him even before the Giro that that could be a stage for him.

Another one that will be interesting to see this week is Unibet Rose Rockets with Wout Poels, who is the oldest rider in the race and could not only win the Rockets' first ever Grand Tour win, but also complete his set of GT stage wins. I know he works really closely with Jon Mould and they both have a lot of belief and faith in each other, and that is a big part of the reason why he's able to be up there fighting for wins.

The way I see it and from talking to the teams every day, the important thing is having everyone on board with the plan, and everyone buying into it and trusting each other. The whole team have to believe that it can work, and that's how you get your riders to give their full efforts and commitment.

Things are about to hot up

It's been a fantastic race so far, but the best part is, we still have a really exciting third week ahead of us, and I think things are going to keep hotting up. We still have a really hard week of racing, with no easy days, and the gaps really aren't big – especially when you consider that Vingegaard's biggest GC rival, Felix Gall, is a rider who is always good in the third week of a Grand Tour.

So I think we still have a big fight for the maglia rosa on our hands, with stage 20 and its two ascents of Piancavallo a day that could still shake everything up. I mean, Visma-Lease a Bike know more than anyone how things can change on the penultimate day, given they took the pink jersey on stage 20 in both 2023 and 2025, so it will be interesting how they approach this week. They're well aware that things can change dramatically, and it will also be a very different final week for them, coming in to defend the jersey rather than chase it. I think so far they've raced a really smart, calm and conservative Giro, but they're in pink now and all eyes will be on them.

We've already had loads of different and exciting winners in this Giro, but if there's one thing I'd like to see in this final week, it would definitely be a stage win for Movistar. They've tried so many times, and riders like Milesi and Rubio have been so strong. We're used to seeing dominant riders and teams win, and obviously they work hard and deserve that, but it's always so special to see the teams and riders who are also out there grinding every day finally get rewarded with a win, so I'm hoping for that for Movistar this week.

Jonas Vingegaard is obviously starting this week in the driver's seat, but if this Giro has taught us anything so far, it's that there are opportunities there for the taking, and this final week has plenty of chances to throw some real excitement into the mix. I can't wait to see what happens!