Wearing the beloved pink jersey for the first time in his career on stage 5, Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) was certainly not having a bad Giro d'Italia, but was frustrated once more on stage 9 as his latest attempt to try to win a stage was once again thwarted.
The Italian led solo into the final kilometres of the Corno alle Scale climb after being in the break for half the day, but was gutted to be caught 1.7km from the top by the GC riders, who had kept the break within catching distance all day.
Sitting high on GC, Ciccone had so far been denied the chance to go in breakaways during the first week, with most of his attempts shut down, resulting in him deliberately losing time on stage 8 and dropping out of the top 10 entirely.
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Now over nine minutes down, Ciccone hoped to be given a chance by the GC teams on stage 9, but still tried and failed to get into the day's initial breakaway, that went in the first hour of racing.
"Even today, they don't want me up there from the start," Ciccone lamented at the finish, speaking to Eurosport. "I spent quite a lot to try, I tried many times."
He didn't give up on the breakaway-friendly stage, though, attacking once more with 72km to go, and bridging across to the lead – both benefitting from and later thwarted by the fact that the peloton kept the breakaway within around two minutes all day.
"It was just annoying, the tempo in the bunch, and I had nothing to lose, so on the small kick I tried to jump because the breakaway was close. Even there I spent quite a lot to close the gap," he said.
Despite his multiple effort already, it was Ciccone who kept pushing the pace on the final two climbs, whittling the group down to five, then just him and Einer Rubio (Movistar) and then going on his own with 7.5km to go.
However, with never much more than a minute and a half on the GC favourites group – Visma-Lease a Bike had wanted to let the break go, but Decathlon CMA CGM kept them close – Ciccone's hopes were dashed quickly once Jonas Vingegaard and Felix Gall went on the attack.
"I was feeling quite good in the last climb so I tried to give everything, but it was not enough, the gap not big, and the efforts from before were for sure still in the legs," he said.
Despite Ciccone's disappointment atop the Corno alle Scale, which also leaves Lidl-Trek still waiting for a stage win in this race, it was a positive day for their GC hopes, with Derek Gee-West holding firm on a day where several rivals lost time, finishing sixth.
And for their Italian puncheur, the chances to win are surely not over yet.
"At the end it was a good try, and for sure maybe in the next stages when we have a stage with some climbing in the start will be much better for me, and for sure it will be harder to control for the others, so it's going to be better," Ciccone said.
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