The toughest stage in the Italian stage race had three climbs along the way. A group of five rode on the front for almost the entire day, getting a maximum lead of ten minutes, but the last remaining fugitive Mads Würtz Schmidt had to bow his head in the final kilometres. Attacks by Geraint Thomas, Egan Bernal and Pogačar were initially countered by Van Aert, but the classification leader had no answer to the vicious acceleration of the UAE-Team Emirates leader at five kilometres from the finish. The Fleming, however, did not give up easily. This resulted in the release of Bernal, Thomas and Julian Alaphilippe.

On the finishline Van Aert, who will start tomorrow in the purple points jersey, had to concede three quarters of a minute to the day’s winner.

Van Aert indicated after the finish that he was not disappointed by losing the leader’s jersey. “I am happy with my performance today. I squeezed the maximum out of it. The competition started attacking early on, which made it the stage very difficult. I rode a constant pace, something that suits my abilities best. I caught a lot of wind and that made it difficult. In the beginning I hoped for support from other riders, but I quickly realised that it had to come from myself. In my mind I made it a kind of time trial and gave everything until the end. If anyone else had had the blue jersey, I would have been in the wheel too. Now I could not hide and I rode for my classification. It’s only logical that the 2020 Tour winner will take the blue leader’s jersey from me here.”

The Belgian is showing ambition for the days ahead. The course seems to be perfectly suited for him. “Pogačar now has a nice lead on me, but I’m not giving up yet and I will do everything in the next three days to achieve the highest possible result. The team is very strong and that pleases me. I can be happy and proud with my performance today. As a result, I am still second and I may continue to have ambitions for the coming days.”