Ciccone’s Giro frustration boils over as stage win slips away again

The Italian Lidl-Trek climber was again one of the most visible riders in the early kilometres of stage 16, repeatedly trying to force a move on the road from Bellinzona to Carì. It was the kind of day that might once have suited him perfectly: short, sharp, mountainous and open to aggression. But in this Giro, the mountain stages have not rewarded those trying to get ahead of the favourites.

Visma | Lease a Bike controlled the stage with familiar authority, keeping the breakaway close and setting the race up for Jonas Vingegaard to win in the pink jersey. The Dane duly delivered, taking his fourth stage victory of the Giro and tightening his grip on a race increasingly being ridden on his terms.

For Ciccone, it was another day spent chasing a result that never came.

“It is that kind of Giro, there is not much to say,” he told bici.pro. “The important thing is to feel good and keep trying. I am a little sorry, because the stages where you need to go in the break with the legs are the ones where you do not have a chance.”

That tension was visible long before the finish. Ciccone attacked more than once and was seen urging other riders to contribute, gesturing strongly when cooperation faltered. Among those he appeared to target was Jardi Christiaan van der Lee, a rider involved in the battle for the mountains classification.

The frustration later reached the roadside. After receiving supplies from a Lidl-Trek soigneur, Ciccone glanced at what he had been handed and threw the bottle away in anger. It was a brief moment, but one that captured the mood of his Giro: restless, ambitious and increasingly short on patience.

Ciccone’s problem is not form. He has looked strong enough to make the race repeatedly. The problem is that the race has left very little space for riders like him. Whenever the road has pointed seriously uphill, Vingegaard and Visma have shown little interest in allowing the stage to drift away.

Ciccone acknowledged as much.

“It is right that Vingegaard races this way,” he said. “He is the pink jersey and he is honouring the race in the best way, so chapeau to him and to the team that can control days like these, which are the most complicated. I do feel some bitterness, also because as the days go by the opportunities become fewer.”

With stage victory slipping further from reach, Ciccone turned his attention during the stage to the mountains points. He collected what he could, but even there Vingegaard remains a major obstacle. The Dane leads the classification with 211 points, 82 more than Ciccone, making the blue jersey an ambitious target rather than a simple consolation prize.

“The blue jersey is in my head,” Ciccone said. “Even if a Vingegaard like this, winning every uphill finish, makes the comeback difficult.”

Ciccone later tried to explain his gestures towards the other riders, saying they were less about anger than about keeping the break alive.

“I understand the other riders too,” he said. “We have the experience to know when we are condemned not to make it to the finish. I understand that sometimes confidence can be missing. My attitude towards them is more about trying to keep morale high and keep trying.”

Still, his frustration was plain to see. Ciccone has already been close several times in this Giro, from Bulgaria to Cosenza and Corno alle Scale, only for the race to come back together or the favourites to surge past. With every missed chance, the next one matters more.

Could he now look beyond the obvious mountain stages and take his chances on less suitable terrain? Ciccone did not rule it out, but said it is more about legs than tactics.

“It is not a question of tactics,” he said. “It is only about legs, exhaustion and, in the end, when those behind decide to go for the stage win, you do not have a chance to find a way to beat them. The only opportunities are when Visma or the general classification men have less interest. For now those are the stages I do not like, but it may be necessary to compromise.”

That feels like the story of his Giro. Free from GC duties, Ciccone hoped for opportunity. Instead, Visma have shut down most of the days that suit him best.

“My condition is good,” he said. “But when you decide not to ride for the general classification, you have to spend energy to get into the break, and at the same time it is difficult to make it to the finish. Maybe, in the end, it would have been better to ride for the general classification.”