Colombian beats Italy’s Damiano Caruso by 1m 29secBritain’s Simon Yates third, Filippo Ganna wins stageAfter the disruption of 2020, the first Grand Tour of the cycling season, the Giro d’Italia, marked a return to something approaching business as usual, with Egan Bernal of Team Ineos taking victory. In spite of a couple of glitches in the final week, Bernal fended off late challenges from Damiano Caruso and Simon Yates, largely thanks to the strength of the team with the biggest budget in cycling.
For Ineos, the race marked a return to the dominant, steamroller style which has now won them 12 Grand Tours in the last 10 years. Through Bernal and one of their strongest team riders, Filippo Ganna, they led the Giro for 16 of the race’s 21 stages and that display of collective strength was concluded in Sunday’s time trial into Milan where Ganna took his second stage win of the race after his victory in the opener in Turin, in spite of a puncture.