Catalunya, Ciccone extraordinary: uphill beats Roglic and Evenepoel

The best Ciccone ever. At the Volta a Catalunya the Abruzzo of the Trek-Segafredo has kept pace with Primoz Roglic and the world champion Remco Evenepoel on the Vallter climb (15 km at 7%, with arrival at an altitude of 2147) and beat both at the finish line. After two stages, Giulio is also second in the general classification, 6” behind Roglic, winner of the first stage, with the same time as Evenepoel. The others were far more distant: Landa, Adam Yates, Almeida finished at 11″, Chaves (who fled from afar) at 15″. It is the ninth career victory for Ciccone, the second in 2023 after a stage at the Vuelta Valenciana. In 2019, the Abruzzese was the yellow jersey in the Tour for two days. The top three of today will also be among the great protagonists of the next Giro d’Italia. Which will start right from Abruzzo, the birthplace of Giulio Ciccone.

“It was an incredible day for me” Ciccone’s first words after the finish, “after losing Dario (Cataldo, forced to retire due to a serious fall, with seven fractures) in yesterday’s stage, I told him that I would have tried to win to dedicate the success to him. This victory is for him, for the team, I’m really happy. The last climb was tough, we tackled it at a great pace. The men of Bahrain-Victorious kept a good pace at the start, then there was the attack from Chaves but in my mind there was only one goal, to follow Roglic and Evenepoel. I gave everything in the last five hundred metres, I think it’s one of the best victories of my career. Was I confident in beating them? Well, in the last two weeks I’ve lost many times, but here we were over 2000m altitude and everything is different in these circumstances, I gave it my all.”