Three Breakout Rides From The 2018 Giro
Three Breakout Rides From The 2018 Giro
These three riders weren't given enough credit before the 2018 Giro d'Italia.
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The story of the 2018 Giro d’Italia was Chris Froome’s incredible comeback in the closing stages of the race. It was one of the greatest sporting feats in recent memory. Any other performance of the race was doomed to pale in comparison to Chris Froome’s stage 19 victory, there were dozens of other accomplishments that deserve credit from the race.
With a bit of historical perspective on our side, FloBikes has selected three stages which saw breakout rides during the 2018 Giro. These stages helped to launch and define the careers of star riders.
Stage 6
At the end of stage six, riders knew that Simon yates was on form, but nobody could have known just how good the young Brit was going.
Simon Yates was a known quantity at this point, having won the best young rider classification in the previous year’s Tour de France. However, the form that Simon Yates arrived at the Giro with 10 months later was something else entirely.
In a well warranted display of team sacrifice, Yates conceded victory on stage six to his teammate Esteban Chaves, but he would go on to win three mountain top finishes in the tour.
Yates appeared to be simply untouchable in the mountains.
While it all came crashing down for Yates in the final week, his performance throughout the Giro was a level beyond what anybody had thought him capable of, and set the tone for his victory at the Vuelta a Espana later that year.
Stage 7
Sometimes one win is all it takes. Prior to the 2018 Giro d’Italia Sam Bennett was a largely overlooked sprinter. Bennett had won a handful of minor races, but was far from being considered a favorite in the WorldTour field.
Bennett had a few near misses in the opening stages of the Giro, then on stage seven he put it together to jump around Elia Viviani in the closing meters. Bennett entered the Giro without a single grand tour stage victory on his palmares. 21 days later, he had three.
The 2018 Giro gave Bennett something that is even more valuable to sprinters than victories. That Giro gave Bennett confidence that he could win against the best.
Since that race, Bennett has asserted himself as one of the most dominant pack finishers in the world.
Stage 8
Had more people been paying attention to stage eight of the 2018 Giro d’Italia, the 2019 edition may not have come as such a surprise to everyone.
Richard Carapaz is one of the most explosive climbers in the peloton, and he uses that skillset to great effect. Carapaz not only knows how to attack, but he knows when to attack, a fact he demonstrated quite clearly during the finale of stage eight.
Carapaz used his effective attacking to win multiple stages and the general classification at the Giro d’Italia the following year.
