16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 minutes! Yes, Bruno Armirail is the new Maglia Rosa of the Giro d’Italia 2023, a competition which, despite the undeniable lack of action among GC favourites, is providing thrills left and right for everything else. Today, for instance, the following menu was expected: rain (obviously), a large breakaway, and a big tussle in the finale. In short, everything that actually happened, except one thing, a change in the Maglia Rosa.
It is not unheard of for a breakaway to also play for the leadership symbol – the same thing happened with Andreas Leknessund just a few days ago – but this is usually first week stuff, as the rankings are short and the favourites don’t want to expose themselves in the Maglia Rosa too early. It is much rarer, however, for this to happen at the end of the second week, when the gaps are wider. Of the 29 riders in the breakaway today in the Sierre-Cassano Magnago stage, the closest in the GC was Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ), but he was a good 18’37” behind leader Geraint Thomas.
