Rubio hits back after Giro clash with Ciccone and Gee-West: ‘Sometimes you have to be human before everything’

Rubio had been part of the breakaway on a stage that was always likely to blur the lines between stage ambitions, classification battles and side objectives. The Movistar rider said he and his teammates had tried to place themselves in the right move, and that he felt he had the best legs of the team on the day.

“We tried to be there in the breakaway,” Rubio explained afterwards to CyclingPro.net. “I felt I had better legs than the others in the team today. We fought for it.”

But the race soon became about more than simply surviving the climbs. Rubio was chasing the Red Bull Kilometre classification, while Ciccone was hunting mountains points and Gee-West was locked in a general classification fight with Michael Storer. Those different interests collided on the road.

“We were in a total battle with Trek, for the mountains points and also for the Red Bull Kilometre,” Rubio said. “It was a very hard-fought day.”

The flashpoint came when Gee-West and Storer sprinted for the Red Bull Kilometre bonus seconds, denying Rubio the chance to strengthen his lead in that competition. Gee-West later said he had simply seen an opportunity in the GC battle.

Rubio, however, felt the moment changed the atmosphere in the break. He said there had been a discussion with Ciccone, who was focused on the mountains classification, over how the points and bonuses might be shared.

“We spoke with Ciccone,” Rubio said. “He would take the mountains points, and I even helped them pull so that afterwards the idea was that I would take the Red Bull Kilometre. But they were clever. They took both.”

That frustration carried into the next climb, where Rubio followed Ciccone and beat him to the summit of the Passo Falzarego, taking points the Italian had expected to claim. Ciccone was furious afterwards, accusing Rubio of a lack of respect and describing the move as that of “a small-time rider.”

Rubio did not deny that he was angry, but he pushed back against the idea that his response came from nowhere.

“They have no word,” he said. “It is cycling, but sometimes you have to be human before everything.”

Ciccone still moved into the lead of the mountains classification, but the anger clearly stayed with him. He attacked on the descent of the Falzarego and briefly looked set for the stage win, only for Sepp Kuss to catch him on the final climb.