Eight Different Stories

29 May 2016

Three weeks of cycling. Three weeks of hard work, suffering, joy and pain. Three weeks fighting for pink. Eight different riders wearing the maglia rosa. Eight smiling boys on the podium. Eight different stories.  Only one of them takes the jersey home. It all started in the Netherlands. Tom Dumoulin (TGA), the local boy, made the Dutch people proud by winning the first stage and thus claiming the pink jersey. In the third stage he lost the jersey to his old teammate Marcel Kittel (EQS). Nevertheless, in the fourth stage in Italy he got the jersey back. In stage eight Gianluca Brambilla (EQS) took over the pink jersey, but after two days his teammate Bob Jungels (EQS) showed that he was stronger in the mountains. The young rider from Luxembourg wore the jersey for three days. Then Andrey Amador (MOV) was lucky enough to feel how it is to wear the leaders jersey. Just for one day. The next day he could not follow the best climbers of the peloton, Esteban Chaves and Steven Kruijswijk. Kruijswijk (TLJ) took over the pink jersey. This was in stage fourteen. He gained more time in the next stages and it seemed like nothing could go wrong anymore. Until Friday. A nasty crash made an end to the dream of becoming the first Dutch winner of the Giro d’Italia. Esteban Chaves (OGE) took over the pink jersey and apologized to Kruijswijk with a ‘sorry, mate’. In the last mountain stage Chaves fought to keep  the pink jersey and bring it home to Colombia, but Vincenzo Nibali was very strong during the last couple of days. Chaves could not keep his wheel and had to let him go. And with that he also let go of the pink jersey. Vincenzo Nibali (AST) is the one that takes the pink jersey home with him.

 Copyright photos: steephill.tv / Sirotti /RCS