The best of the Bulgaria stages for action awaits with a difficult climb with 10km to go.
La vie en rose: the surprise were the crowds, plenty of people came out to see the race go by. The shock was the crash in the final with 600m to go, it felled so many riders the road was temporarily blocked. Riders can recon the finish, bloggers can scour maps, but organisers can place barriers where they want and the crash happened in a narrow point on a normally wide boulevard.
In the chaos this left ten riders clear to contest the sprint with Lidl’s Max Walscheid surging clear rather than leading out Jonathan Milan. Tobias Lund had a better lead-out but Paul Magnier even better one and the Frenchman was able to power past for the win and the maglia rosa.
Milan looked underpowered in the sprint, legs spinning in high cadence. Moments later he looked distraught when interviewed by Italian TV for losing out on the maglia rosa but he can try again tomorrow and came through unscathed. There were no immediate injuries in the crash but others will be sore today and into tomorrow. Kaden Groves seemed to come off the worst but the plan is to start today. Update: Matteo Moschetti won’t start today out of concussion precaution.
French cycling’s future is called Paul and not just Seixas. Magnier is from the Alps near Grenoble but he was born in Texas and lived there just long enough to start singing nursery rhymes in English. His father was a good amateur racer and Paul started out in mountain biking. Crossing to the road he saw himself as a climber, even when he turned pro with Quick Step for 2024 where he wanted to go back to the U23 Giro and race for GC but soon found out from his team mates at Calpe that he wasn’t going to be the new Mikel Landa. Instead he out-sprinted Tim Merlier and this and more gave him team leadership for his first ever pro race in Majorca… which he won. He had 19 wins last year and if they were in smaller races he was 21 with a lot to learn on the road. Now he’s leading his team at the Giro and wearing pink.
The Route: 221km, the second longest of the race and 2,700m of climbing. The middle part crosses the Balkan mountains with some 7-8% slopes in places.
With 14km to go the climb of out Lyaskovets stings. It’s 2.5km at 9.5% and has long parts of 12% and even an 18% moment on the way up thanks to some tight hairpins. It’s all on a small road in woodland so moving up is costly or probably impossible making this a crunch point for stage contenders and GC riders alike. The descent is more regular.
The Finish: charming streets to saunter past the churches and fortresses… if you’re strolling about on foot but these are narrow roads for a bike race with a pinchpoint before 2km to go, although the previous climb should have thinned out the field. It’s uphill at 5-6% between 2km and 1km to go with some cobbles too before flattening out for the finish.
The Contenders: a tricky climb to thin the field and reward attackers but it’s only one climb, this isn’t Liège or the Amstel. Seven minutes and basta.
There are a several names to contend with but none of them is a prolific winner. Among the attackers on the climb Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana) has had a slower start to the season this year but his team can afford to aim for more quality than hustling for UCI points. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) packs a good sprint for a finish like this but like more hills in the finish to make it more selective. UAE have options, Jhonatan Narváez is suited but form unknown after crashing out of the Tour Down Under, can António Morgado make it over the climb with the best If not then Jan Christen probably can. Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain) is a fit for today with colleague Edoardo Zambanini still after a first pro win so today is asking a lot.
Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarché) is suited to the finish but is he in form? His team mates Simone Gualdi and Lorenzo Rota have a chance here too and all three did not ride the Famenne Ardenne race that has made half the team sick.
More Italian picks include Filippo Zana (Soudal-Quickstep) and Andrea Vendrame (Jayco) with the later having to hold on for the climb and get back for the finish.
Some sprinters have a chance. Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quickstep) among them as he’s part of a new generation of sprinters with big aerobic capacities too but his problem here is he can’t control the speed of the others in the finish, he can only react and follow and hope there’s hesitation up ahead. Orluis Aular (Movistar) is another fast finisher, Corbin Strong (NSN) too.
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Scaroni, Ciccone, Buitrago |
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Morgado, Aular, Magnier, Strong, Turner |
Weather: cool and cloudy, 18°C with the chance of some rain and damp roads in places.
TV: KM0 is at 11.05 and the finish is forecast for 4.15pm CEST.
Postcard from Veliko Tarnovo
Today’s finish town has hosted the Tour of Bulgaria plenty of times, although yesterday’s city of Burgas has enjoyed more visits. The stage race dates back to 1924 although it’s had its interruptions. Today is a fixture on the calendar and 2.2-rated by the UCI.
Last year Byron Munton was 7th overall, he’s been impressive with the Modern Adventure team this season, having rode with the Epronex-Hungary Cycling Team last year. Others in the top-10 overall over the years include Paul Double and Georg Steinhauser but the race is not big on revealing talent. This is not down to the event itself, more that the Continental / 2.2 stage race scene is structurally this way with few riders on this circuit moving up the pro ranks. Why could fill a whole blog post but riders are often picked up earlier by pro teams and put into development paths.
In 2021 Lukáš Kubiš finished sixth overall and came back in 2023 to finish one place higher. Now a stalwart of the Unibet-Rose Rockets team he is back on Bulgarian roads to ride the Giro.