It was a day on the Giro d'Italia when romance went up against big money and romance won. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) has ridden his entire career in the service of others but has stepped out of the shadows to win today's stage 20 and consolidate his 2nd place overall.
Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) placed 14th on the stage and was 3:10 down. The Irishman, who has ridden so well and taken a stage already on this race, was forced to dig deep on the final climb and lost time.
However, while he faltered a little today he still put in a very good final climb. He remains in 10th overall and on the strength of his performances over the last 48 hours, that placing is probably a fair one.
Nicolas Roche (Team DSM) put in some huge work on the front of the remains of the peloton on the penultimate climb; bodies being instantly spat out the back clear evidence of his impact.
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That effort by Roche set up his team's attack - which ultimately moved its leader, Romain Bardet, into the top 5 overall. After his work was done, Roche rode in to the finish and placed 101st at 32:58.
But the day belonged to Caruso; the 33-year-old attacking with Romain Bardet (Team DSM) and a number of their team mates on the penultimate climb today on the 164km stage from Verbania to Valle Spluga-Alpe Motta.
While they never got more than 50 seconds and their group blew apart on the final ascent of the 7.3km Alpe Motta, Caruso pressed on alone and took a very popular victory - for Italy and for the underdog.
Behind Caruso on the last climb, Ineos Grenadiers had Jonathan Castroviejo and then Daniel Martínez setting the pace in the select group, with race leader and team mate Egan Bernal sitting in their wheels.
Martínez in particular put in a spectacular performance, yet again, in pacing Bernal almost the entire way up the climb. Martínez then faded a little (though barely) at the very top and left the race leader to his own devices with only Caruso still clear ahead.
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By the time Martínez was done, he and Bernal had burned off all of the other favourites on the climb, with João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Simon Yates (BikeExchange) the last to be dropped.
The threatened big attack from Yates never came. The British rider simply did not have the legs and over the course of three weeks he was comprehensively beaten by both Caruso and Bernal.
When Caruso and Bardet struck out in their group today, chasing down the last of the early breakaway men, Yates opted to stay in the select group being pulled along towards the final climb by Ineos Grenadiers.
When the leaders got onto the final ascent it was down to Caruso and his team mate Pello Bilbao alongside Bardet and his team mates Chris Hamilton, Michael Storer; the Team DSM trio having started the move on the upper slopes of the penultimate climb.
Very soon after the road kicked up for the final ascent of Giro 2021, only Caruso and Bardet remained out front. And with 2km to go Caruso dropped Bardet. From that point it was a drag race between Caruso at the front and, 20 seconds back, Martínez and Bernal.
In the end Caruso held on really impressively; riding strongly, never flagging and really enjoying the biggest moment of his career. He took the win after 4½ hours of racing. Bernal was 2nd at 24 seconds and the incredible Martínez held on for 3rd at 35 seconds, with Bardet 4th on the same time.
And then all eyes were on the clock to see the damage done to the other big names. Almeida was 5th at 41 seconds and Yates 6th at 51 seconds. Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech) was 7th at 1:13 followed by Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo) in 8th at 1:29.
The next GC man to finish was Tobia Foss (Jumbo Visma), who took 12th place at 2:37 and has confirmed his prospects as a Grand Tour rider. Dan Martin was the next big name; in 14th at 3:10.
The stage result means the top 10 overall is largely unchanged, though the gaps are mostly bigger and the order of some riders has changed a little. With just tomorrow's 30.3km TT to come in Milan, Bernal leads by 1:59 from the brilliant Caruso, with Yates in 3rd, now at 3:23.
The big change in the overall was Hugh Carthy dropping from 5th to 7th. As a result, Bardet and Martinez both moved up one place overall, to 5th and 6th respectively. Martínez will tomorrow surely look for his name to be engraved onto the trophy alongside Bernal's, such was the contribution he has made to securing he maglia rosa.
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