After yesterday’s time trial, the Giro d’Italia U23 was headed towards its first mountaintop finish of the 2021 edition. The stage featured a total of 142 km with a total of four categorized climbs, with the hard slopes of the Colle Passerino being the deciding factor of the day. The stage was off to a very fast start, as despite several attacks in the first part of the day, the breakaway did not go clear until 40 km were done. Eventually, it was a group of 25 riders the ones that left the peloton behind, with Daan Hoole, Stan van Tricht and Harrison Wood representing our interests there. 

The gap kept on growing the front group was allowed a little bit over a minute as they hit the first slopes of the day. The break made its way through the first two climbs but with 30 km to go the front group started to break into pieces, and Harrison Wood found himself leading the race with six other riders, but the peloton was fastly approaching the leaders. Coming into the last climb of the day, a sole leader went away while Harrison Wood and Marco Frigo stayed in the chasing group. Down at the finish line, we could see Marco Frigo closing the Top 15 of the now and staying 12th on GC after the first showdown for climbers. 

Tomorrow the race will head towards San Pelegrino, with one category two climb awaiting the bunch just 20 km shy from the finish line. 

Marco Frigo, shares his thoughts about the stage: 
“Today was not the best of days. I last some time on the downhill sections, so that is something that really angers me even though with the rain it was a bit difficult to handle the bike. However, I can look at the bright side, because when going uphill I felt really good and that is a very strong positive to take onto the coming stages. The Giro d’Italia U23 is a long race and anything can happen. I’m in a good position on GC and not that far away from the podium, so I will keep on fighting”.