Giro Report: Week 2

After another a week of rain, COVID and breakaways, we analyse the successful performances of EF Education-EasyPost, BORA-Hansgrohe and Israel-Premier Tech and look at their prospects for the remainder of the race. We begin, though, by looking at the poor performances of Cofidis andArkéa Samsic.

Cofidis' poor Giro continued this week, as they only amassed 55 points, bringing their total to 120 points for the full race: the equivalent of third place on one stage. Prospects for the third week are not particularly encouraging, given they do not have a rider capable of winning a mountain stage. Thus, this limits their only realistic opportunity to Stage 17, which could end in a breakaway win.

Likewise, Arkéa Samsic have not enjoyed the second week, with their only points coming through Warren Barguil's 11th place on Stage 14. David Dekker's abandon has all but ended the French squad's opportunities from a bunch sprint, meaning their hopes for further points rely heavily on Warren Barguil, whose strategy will rest on getting in a morning mountain breakaway that is allowed to contest the stage victory by the GC teams.

Following slow(ish) starts, EF Education-EasyPost and BORA-Hansgrohe have started to move up the rankings after they both picked up stage wins this week. Aleksandr Vlasov's abandon appears to have freed some of their riders, particularly Denz, to target stage wins as they are now only supporting one GC rider, in Lennard Kamna. EF have been similarly successful on such intermediate stages, with Healy's demonstration on the final road stage of the opening week and Cort's race craft masterclass on Stage 10 responsible for nearly half of their total.

Primarily through a string of consistent breakaway performances by Toms Skujiņš, Trek-Segafredo continue to lead the points standings. With a mountainous final week and the absence of Mads Pedersen, the American squad has likely attained the majority of their points already since their opportunities will mostly be limited to breakaways on the two remaining flat stages and they do not have a rider who will score highly in the general classification.

Israel-Premier Tech have enjoyed a very successful second week, as the graph above illustrates. Canadian Derek Gee, who has been the revelation of this Giro, has taken three admirable second places and a fourth place, contributing over 60% of their total. Indeed, the points amassed by Gee so far is greater than nine teams (Ag2R Citroën, Astana-Qazaqstan, Cofidis, Corratec Selle-Italia, DSM, Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè, Jumbo-Visma, Movistar and Arkéa Samsic). The graph below provides a breakdown of IPT's points over the first two weeks.

Although Pozzovivo has abandoned, IPT should be competitive from mountain breakaways next week. Alongside Gee, neo-pro Marco Frigo appears to have the capabilities to win a stage since he has finished in the top 5 twice already this month.  Additionally, they have Matthew Riccitello - another promising neo-pro climber, who has already shown glimpses of his ability so far this month. Now we are into his terrain, we should see him animating the early breakaways for the remainder of the Giro.

Enjoy the final week! (hopefully we see some exciting GC action, and the rain goes away)