Bonus Battle: Del Toro vs Ayuso

Patxi Gabica's unexpected victory in Vicenza years ago marked him as a potential contender for the maglia rosa in Italy, as the mountains loomed, his preferred terrain, and he was just five seconds off the lead. The blonde cyclist from the Kas team might have dreamt of the glory the Italian newspapers heralded, but it was not to be. Many dreams shatter against the relentless walls that await around every corner.

Mexican cyclist Isaac del Toro, with youthful fervour and the calm of one who dreams while awake, crossed the Vicenza finish line as the third witness to a memorable finish, a duel of titans between Pedersen and Van Aert. His face was a blend of fatigue and future: he knew that this podium might be just another stop on his journey to the true summits, which begin tomorrow in a Giro that has postponed its most challenging stages to the final week, separating the main players from the supporting cast.

While the Giro was in Vicenza, in the heart of Veneto, with its history and art, the cyclists began to glimpse their limits, which will determine whether they remain in the fight or fall into something that can in no way be called mediocrity after so many days of sustained effort. Del Toro does not yet know these limits, nor whether the first two weeks will take their toll, but he continues to gather arguments both for and against, and the race accumulates uncertainties in exhausting stages like yesterday's, where key moments must be dissected to arrive at a more or less accurate analysis of the situation.

When Ayuso was left behind in San Giovanni in Monte after Ineos's push for Bernal, who improves daily and whom Del Toro, Roglic, McNulty, or Carapaz had no trouble catching, was it a sign of weakness or a lapse? The Spanish rider dropped to the back of the peloton on the curve leading to the ascent and was left behind. Speculation arose over whether it was the former.

But later, when Del Toro shot like a bullet for the bonus seconds and Ayuso snatched them in the final pedal stroke, that hypothetical lack of energy seemed non-existent. Because when you're not up for it, you're not, and no one sprints for a few paltry seconds. Perhaps the explanation that both are roosters in the same henhouse is closer to reality. Where Ayuso could not, or did not want to, respond was in the 800-meter climb to the Basilica of Santa Maria di Berico, with the porticoed galleries to the left of the riders, where Del Toro did want to join the party proposed by Pedersen—the winner—and Van Aert, two unleashed forces of nature, who found in that short but ruthless ascent the best terrain for their evolutions.

At the finish line, it was the Dane who raised his arms, and a little bit Isaac del Toro too, who despite his vain attempt to catch the two phenomena, managed to add more coupons to his Giro intentions card, which is still lacking all its toughness and has yet to arrive in its terrifying splendour. To the two seconds Ayuso took from him in what was once called an intermediate sprint, the leader deducted three at the finish plus the four bonus seconds. Five to add to his lead, now at 38 seconds.