procycling

It became a good race when the gravel section started and Pedersen started to pull. And kept on pulling for miles, while the bunch was breaking into pieces behind.

It was funny moment when he started weakening, and Ineos and UAE riders were trying to get to the front to take their turn pulling to re-increase the speed. He didn't want to leave them his place, and insisted until he blew up...

Then falls and punctured formed the pattern of the various groups. Is it too random? Well, it is also the riders' and the teams' choice to pick fast but weak tyres, because they are afraid to lose 20 seconds should someone else attack on the paved section, and commonly lose 1 to 2 minutes on each puncture, as on this type of race, team (or even neutral) cars cannot be behind each of the 5, 10, 15 groups.

There were somewhat weird tactics from several teams, including Lidl-Trek (special award to Vacek in that respect 🤨).

Van Aert (🇧🇪 Visma) and Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE) are the main beneficiaries of the stage, respectively stage winner and new pink jersey wearer. Van Aert and Bernal (🇨🇴 Ineos) are two riders who resurrected today, even though the latter was a bit short in the end.

Many splits + the final climb in Siena city, means that most riders crossed the line solo or in really tiny groups.

Gaudu (🇫🇷 FDJ) is out of GC for good this time: among other things, he was afraid of the descents on gravel sections. Poole (🇬🇧 Picnic) lost a lot of time too. Hard times for Roglitch (🇸🇮 Bora) and Storer (🇦🇺 Tudor) who fell.

On the other side, Carapaz (🇪🇨 EF) and Ciccone (🇮🇹 Lidl-Trek) are back in the GC game. 4 UAE are in the top-10 of GC...

• First Italian in GC is now Tiberi (🇮🇹 Bahrein), 3^rd^;
• first Spaniard is Ayuso (🇪🇸 UAE), 2^nd^ behind his teammate;
• first Frenchman is now Prodhomme (🇫🇷 Decathlon), 24^th^ at nearly 6 minutes...
• first Belgian is... oh dear, the first Belgian is 44 minutes behind...