2021 Giro d'Italia

The Giro was originally slated to have its stage one Big Start in Sicily, but it was relocated to begin in Turin.

The first stage was a prologue-like short individual time trial just under nine kilometers long.[16] Filippo Ganna won the stage and pink jersey with Edoardo Affini and Tobias Foss making up the rest of the stage podium. This was the second year in a row Ganna won the opening stage. Riders from Ineos Grenadiers took 1st and 10th place as riders from Team Jumbo–Visma and Deceuninck–Quick-Step took six of the other eight places in the top 10. The gap between the important GC riders was wide, from the newcomer Foss and João Almeida finishing 3rd and 4th to Egan Bernal and Mikel Landa finishing 24th and 77th.[17] A three-man breakaway broke clear as soon as the flag dropped on stage 2. The break, composed of Vincenzo Albanese (Eolo–Kometa), Umberto Marengo (Bardiani–CSF–Faizanè), and Filippo Tagliani (Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec) were allowed to build up a gap of +4:20 before the peloton began to bring them back with Albanese taking the points for the mountains jersey. The sprinter's teams did their work neutralizing and exterminating the breakaway threat, setting up a final sprint where Tim Merlier won the day ahead of Giacomo Nizzolo and Elia Viviani. As a result of this victory Merlier took over the lead in the points classification and would defend it for the next few stages.[18]

Prior to the start of stage 2 a moment of silence was held in memory of Wouter Weylandt.

Stage 3 began with heavy rain, but despite the conditions an escape bunch of seven riders eventually formed with Albanese among them as he was seeking to defend his mountains jersey, which he was able to do. Eventually the weather cleared and the gap of the escapees grew to over +6:00 before the peloton began reeling them in. Specifically it was the Bora–Hansgrohe team of Peter Sagan who turned up the pace in an attempt to drop Sagan's rivals and set him up to go for the stage win. With 100 kilometers to go Maciej Bodnar was at the front for Team Bora and the gap was down to +4:20 and continuing to drop. For the majority of the stage Team Bora was the only team doing the chasing. With the peloton continuously closing the gap late in the stage Simon Pellaud made an attack and Taco van der Hoorn was the only other rider able to stay with him. With about ten kilometers to go teams UAE Team Emirates and Cofidis began assisting in bringing back the final escapees in order to give their sprinters a chance at the win. With about nine kilometers to go van der Hoorn launched an attack which dropped Pellaud. As a result he was the last man up the road during the final few kilometers and he managed to beat the hard charging peloton to the finish line by just four seconds as Davide Cimolai took 2nd and Sagan settled for 3rd. The overall situation had Ganna in the lead by approximately +0:20 ahead of Foss, Almeida, Evenepoel and Cavagna. Stage 4 was another overcast, dreary day except this time the rain was worse towards the end of the stage. A breakaway of 25 riders eventually formed as groups of differing riders attacked, which would eventually produce the stage winner. The gap opened up to +5:00 in relatively little time, but this group didn't build a large enough lead where it would be a certainty the winner would come from it. Francesco Gavazzi (Eolo–Kometa) attacked the small categorized climbs to defend the mountains jersey of his teammate Albanese and about midway through the stage Christopher Juul-Jensen launched an attack at the front of the breakaway which only Quinten Hermans and Rein Taaramäe answered. Hermans was dropped before long and for much of the day Juul-Jensen and Taramae led the race with Taaramäe being in a position to take the pink jersey if the attack was successful. Eventually the duo was caught, by another duo of Alessandro De Marchi of (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Joe Dombrowski of (UAE Team Emirates), both of whom had the opportunity to take the race lead. Dombrowski launched the decisive attack with four kilometers to go and soloed to the line for the stage win,[19] rising to 2nd in the overall standings and also taking over the lead in the mountains classification as De Marchi crossed the finish line in 2nd, but took over the pink jersey. As far as the GC contenders were concerned Aleksandr Vlasov was the highest placed in 7th overall, Evenepoel was in 8th, Hugh Carthy, who finished on the podium in the most recent Grand Tour, was in 10th, Bernal in 11th, Landa in 15th, former winner of all three grand tours Vincenzo Nibali in 25th and Tobias Foss had fallen from 3rd place overall after stage 1 all the way down to 31st at +2:42 behind the leader.

Stage 5 began with Filippo Tagliani of (Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec) and Umberto Marengo attacking early. Due to the success of breakaways during the first week the peloton did not give them much room and they were brought back with just over 100 kilometers remaining in the stage. Another group of three riders attacked later in the stage, but they were caught with 3 kilometers to go as the leadout trains got up to speed for the sprint finish. Caleb Ewan won the day as Nizzolo took 2nd who was followed by Viviani, Sagan and Fernando Gaviria. Nizzolo took over the lead in the points classification from Merlier. During the stage Joe Dombrowski, who was in position to possibly take the pink jersey in the coming stages, hit a race official which caused a multi-rider crash. Pre-race favorite Mikel Landa was seriously injured with broken ribs and a broken collarbone and had to abandon the race leaving Damiano Caruso, a career Domestique, as the team leader for Bahrain Victorious. Dombrowski finished the stage; but after the stage he was evaluated by team medical staff and the following morning he posted a video to fans on social media where he stated, “Hi guys, unfortunately today I won’t be able to start here at the Giro. We did the concussion protocol last night, then followed up again this morning and just... I didn’t pass that, so with the doctors in the team we decided that it was not safe for me to start today."[20] François Bidard was also involved in the crash, and he too would not survive to finish the race. De Marchi kept his lead, Louis Vervaeke moved into Dombrowski's spot and he was followed by Nelson Oliveira and Attila Valter who was leading the best young rider classification. During stage 6 several riders went clear during the first kilometers but Team Israel Start-Up Nation was able to control this initial breakaway. Eventually, six riders went clear about 30 kilometres (19 mi) into the stage, while the duo of Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën Team) and Bauke Mollema (Trek–Segafredo) soon gave chase and after a considerable pursuit managed to bridge the gap to the break. The eight-rider break built an advantage of around five and a half minutes. At this point, yet again, the rain began to fall heavily. Eventually Gino Mäder would make a move and attack this group and win the stage as well as take the lead in the mountains classification. The GC riders were very close behind at the finish with Egan Bernal, Remco Evenepoel and Dan Martin coming in at +0:12, and they were followed soon after by Giulio Ciccone, Damiano Caruso and Dani Martinez, who was proving to be the strongest Super-Domestique in the field riding in support of Bernal. Attila Valter survived not far behind these elite riders and moved into the pink jersey, a few seconds ahead of the now 2nd place Evenepoel and 3rd place Bernal. Martin, Ciccone and Yates all moved into the top 10.

Late in the stage a controversial incident occurred with around 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) to go. As a Team BikeExchange team car tried to pull up alongside an official race car to collect rain jackets left behind from their riders, the Team BikeExchange car ran into the back of Deceuninck–Quick-Step rider Pieter Serry, who had just been dropped from the group ahead. Serry managed to escape without injuries before going on to finish the stage. The occupants of the car were both team managers. The driver was expelled from the race and the passenger was given a fine.[21][22] From the hotel Serry received a phone call and an apology over the incident, which he accepted saying it wasn't a big deal and could have been worse.

Stage 7 saw a trio of riders attack right at the start. Pellaud, Marengo and Mark Christian. Pellaud and Marengo would be involved in numerous breakaway attempts and therefore were highly placed in the Breakaway, Combative Rider and Intermediate Sprints classifications throughout the race. In the end it was a stage for the sprinters and inside the final kilometer as the leadout was in progress Fernando Gaviria made a surprise attack to steal the win but was caught just before the line by Cimolai, Merlier and Ewan, who won the stage and for the first time in his career, the points jersey in a grand tour.[23]

Stage 8 began in Foggia and early in the stage it was crosswinds causing weather related issues as a few splits formed in the main field. An hour or so later things settled down and a breakaway formed. This edition of the breakaway was given some rope, as none of the riders were deemed a threat to the pink jersey of Groupama–FDJ. Gaviria joined the group in search of points and he was joined by Victor Campenaerts of Team Qhubeka, holder of the 'Fastest Hour' record since April of 2019.[24] Gaviria took many of the intermediate sprint points and at the end of the day Merlier would move back into the lead in the points classification. Victor Lafay would make the successful move from within the escape bunch and solo for his first career stage win. Francesco Gavazzi made a late attack in an attempt to catch Lafay but came in over +0:30 later with Nikias Arndt right behind him. There were no changes in the overall situation. Stage 9 was the first of seven stages in the 2021 Giro labeled "D", for severe difficulty, because of the hard climbing as well as the final 1.6 kilometers being unpaved "sterrato". Tomasz Marczynski did not start (DNS) the stage due to struggling with post-covid symptoms. There were several attacks throughout the stage including stage winners Mäder and Lafay trying to get an escape started, then thirty kilometers into stage another attempt was made but UAE Team Emirates missed getting a rider into the group and therefore worked at the front of the peloton to bring the group back before they ever had the chance to get away. It started raining again and more escape attempts came, including a final group of 17 riders, which teams FDJ and Ineos rode to control at the front of the main field. Mäder took mountains points early in the day to defend his jersey, but by the end of the stage Geoffrey Bouchard would overtake him and wouldn't relinquish the mountains jersey for the rest of the Giro. In the end the GC riders would fight it out for the win. Gianni Moscon and Dani Martinez rode strongly for Ineos, setting the pace for Egan Bernal. As the end of the stage approached, the gravel section, the final escapees included Mollema of Trek and Michael Storer of DSM chasing the duo of Koen Bouwman riding for Jumbo-Visma and Bouchard of AG2R. With 500 meters to go Vlasov made an attack from the GC group which only Bernal and Ciccone answered. Bernal then put his stamp of authority on the race[25] by attacking again which Ciccone answered briefly and with 400 meters to go they passed the final breakaway riders like they were standing still. Bernal kept the pressure on and crossed the line solo seven seconds ahead of Vlasov and Ciccone. A few seconds later Evenepoel and Martin crossed and two seconds behind them was a group including Almeida, Martinez, Damiano Caruso and Romain Bardet. Valter was dropped and lost the pink jersey to Bernal, but it was late in the stage and he still clung to the top 5 behind Ciccone, Vlasov and Evenepoel. During the stage Matej Mohoric was involved in a serious crash when he hit a crack in the road and was violently thrown over his handlebars as the front wheel completely broke off his bike. He hit his head with force, but never lost consciousness and only abandoned the race due to the insistence of team medical staff.

Stage 10 was a flat stage and the escapes came early in the stage. Marengo and Pellaud went off the front yet again and the were joined by van der Hoorn, Samuele Rivi of team Eolo–Kometa and eventually Kobe Goossens of team Lotto–Soudal. Team Bora rode hard to see to it this escape group was destroyed and the rivals of Sagan were put under as much pressure as possible and if possible, ejected out the back of the peloton. Cesare Benedetti, Felix Grosschartner and Matteo Fabbro forced the pace through the foothills and Emanuel Buchmann, Giovanni Aleotti and Daniel Oss kept the pressure on throughout the day and several elite sprinters were dropped including Nizzolo, Merlier and Dylan Groenewegen. With 43 kilometers to go the breakaway was absorbed back into the bunch and while they had run into a spot of bad luck being forced to stop and wait at a train crossing, the race jury determined this wouldn't have changed the inevitability of the peloton eventually catching them. Inside the final five kilometers Maciej Bodnar set the pace and inside the final three kilometers Team DSM came to the front to get their sprinter, Max Kanter, into position but there was a crash that took out many riders including Kanter. Bernal and Vlasov were also caught up in this, but it was inside the final three kilometers so they didn't lose time.[26] As the finish approached Sagan started his sprint from very far out betting on himself to be able to hold off any pursuers and it paid off as he claimed the win ahead of Gaviria and Cimolai. Sagan also took over the lead in the points classification and would not relinquish it for the remainder of the race.

Stage 11 contained several gravel sections and the initial breakaway of eleven riders eventually opened up a gap of approximately +14:00 before it started coming down, meaning the stage winner would likely come from the group. These eleven riders stayed out front for most of the day and eventually began attacking one another in the fight for the win. In the GC group there were several attacks and a few highly placed riders dropped out of the top 10 as they were eventually dropped as a result of the pace set by Team Ineos, specifically Filippo Ganna who was trying to create problems for the opponents of Bernal. Remco Evenepoel, who was in 2nd place overall fell into difficulty on the gravel sectors and his teammate João Almeida had to fall back and assist him. He would wind up losing about +2:00 and fall from 2nd to 7th place. Regarding the stage win initially three riders were in the best position in Dries De Bondt, Mauro Schmid and Alessandro Covi but De Bondt would eventually be dropped as Harm Vanhoucke would escape the remnants of the breakaway group. In the end the stage was won by Mauro Schmid, in what was described as a memorable fashion as he overpowered Covi when it came down to the finish.[27] In the GC situation Aleksandr Vlasov was now the only rider within a minute of Bernal as Damiano Caruso rode strongly and rose in the standings to occupy the final podium position. He was followed by Hugh Carthy and Simon Yates as Emanuel Buchmann moved from outside the top 10 to 6th place overall just over +0:30 ahead of 7th place Evenepoel.

During stage 12 a group of sixteen riders eventually broke away and for the second day in a row built an insurmountable gap of over +12:00. Bouchard joined in yet again to collect mountains classification points and built on his lead over Bernal who was defending his overall lead. There were multiple crashes in the stage which would cause the eventual abandons of Alessandro De Marchi and Marc Soler, who was in 11th place overall when he left the race. Among the GC riders there were no major changes and at the end of the day the stage win would be decided from a final group of four riders including Gianluca Brambilla, George Bennett, Andrea Vendrame and Chris Hamilton. Hamilton and Vendrame would get away from Bennett and Brambilla with Vendrame claiming the victory in the two up sprint.[28]

Stage 13 was a return to the flats where the breakaway was limited in number due to the reality of the sprinters' teams being unlikely to give any would-be escapees much chance of success. Three riders eventually formed an escape group, all of whom were familiar faces in the breakaways thus far in the Giro – Samuele Rivi, Umberto Marengo and Simon Pellaud. At most they had a gap of about seven minutes but the peloton gradually brought them back. They managed to survive until inside the final ten kilometres before the sprinters' teams took control. In the end, the sprint was won by Giacomo Nizzolo who narrowly edged out Edoardo Affini. Affini was actually the leadout man for Dylan Groenewegen, however Groenewegen didn't time his sprint properly and finished 10th whereas Affini didn't even realize he rode so strongly and finished 2nd.[29] Fernando Gaviria, who normally would have been competing for a sprint finish like this, suffered a mechanical where he lost his seat in the final kilometre of the race. He was out of the saddle for the entire final kilometre of the stage, yet despite this he still managed a top 5 finish. He described the end of the stage by saying, "It was one of the longest kilometers of my life".[30] The GC situation saw no major changes.

Neither Dylan Groenewegen nor David Dekker started stage 14 as a result of tactical decisions made by the management of Team Jumbo–Visma before the start of the race. For Dekker it was because this was the first time in his career he had raced every day for two straight weeks and the elite sprinter Groenewegen was just coming back after a considerable absence from racing.[31]GC contender Jai Hindley also did not start the stage. The stage began with the first 130 kilometres or so being mostly flat and a breakaway group got a gap of just under nine minutes. Astana–Premier Tech put in a lot of the work at the front of the main field and was attempting to get Aleksandr Vlasov in a good position for the upcoming climb on Monte Zoncolan. Edoardo Affini and Jacopo Mosca put in a great deal of work at the front of the breakaway group in an attempt to get their teammates George Bennett and Bauke Mollema the opportunity to go for the stage win. The group still had a gap of about 6 minutes as the Zoncolan began. Jan Tratnik attacked the breakaway group and only Lorenzo Fortunato eventually made the move to go with him although Alessandro Covi, Bennett and Mollema were not far behind initially. In the end Fortunato beat Tratnik to the line by about thirty seconds to claim the stage win. In the GC situation, the most important attack of the day came from Simon Yates, which no one could initially answer.[32] Egan Bernal eventually went after him and passed him. Bernal crossed the finish line in 4th place, gaining 11 seconds on Yates and more than that on everyone else. In the overall situation he now led Yates in 2nd place by +1:33 and Damiano Caruso in 3rd place by +1:51. Vlasov fell to 4th and he was followed by Carthy, Buchmann, Ciccone and Remco Evenepoel who held on to remain in 8th place at +3:52. 9th place was now occupied by Bernal's teammate Dani Martínez, who was proving himself to be the strongest Super-Domestique in the race.

Stage 15 began with a serious crash involving dozens of riders barely three minutes after 'the race is on' was declared, forcing race officials to neutralize the race for 35 minutes while bikes were fixed or replaced and torn clothes were changed. The sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo did not start the stage having suffered too much over the previous mountain stages and as a result of the crash Natnael Berhane, Jos van Emden and Emanuel Buchmann, who was still in 6th place overall, abandoned the race.[33] Late in the stage it began raining, which worked to the benefit of the breakaway group which had built enough of a gap to ensure the winner would come from among them. In the end seven riders were within ten seconds at the finish line where Victor Campenaerts of Team Qhubeka Assos narrowly defeated Oscar Riesebeek of Alpecin–Fenix for the stage win. The GC situation remained the same, but due to the withdrawal of Buchmann Tobias Foss, who had fallen as low as 31st place earlier in the race, entered the top 10.