“This stage gives us a good feeling”

And how to condense in a headline what happened this Monday in the second stage of the Giro Next Gen? In Cherasco, after a day of high speed (at the end the average speed was close to 42 km/h), triumph of the breakaway of the breakaway of the refugee. And with the five riders of the EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team saving all the incidents of the day and arriving in the heart of the peloton.

Belgian Gil Genderts (Soudal-Quick Step Development) won, slightly alone, six seconds can be everything, and his compatriot Alec Segaert retained the pink jersey. Genderts broke away from the peloton in the last 50 kilometres of the day, in the most orographically complicated area, and went away with Darren Rafferty (Hagens Berman Axeon) in the hunt for the day’s escapees. And then, on the last climb, the aforementioned escape of the refugee.

The Contador Foundation quintet joined the first main bunch. “This stage gave us a good feeling. As soon as things tightened up a lot more, in the area of the passes, the group became much smaller and the whole team was there. Personally, I felt very good when the road looked up”, said Ramón Fernández.

For Tuesday, a truly ideal stage for the art of the volley: 146 kilometres flat, with only one small hill in the middle of the route, between Priocca and Magenta. A day that will be fast and where precautions will have to be taken to avoid crashes and other race incidents.

[? La Presse / Giro Next Gen / Carlos Barredo]