| 2021 UCI World Tour, race 18 of 29 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Peloton on Stage 15 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Race details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dates | 8–30 May 2021 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stages | 21 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Distance | 3,410.9[N 1] km (2,119 mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Winning time | 86h 17' 28" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2021 Giro d'Italia was the 104th edition of the Giro, a three-week Grand Tour cycling stage race. It started on 8 May and finished on 30 May. On 26 May 2019, the race organisers RCS Sport originally announced that the start of the 2021 Giro (known as the Grande Partenza) would be in Sicily, Italy.[1][2][3] However, on 4 February 2021, RCS Sport announced that the race would instead start in Turin, with the rest of the race route being announced on 24 February 2021.[4][5]
The race was won by Egan Bernal of Ineos Grenadiers, winning his first Giro title and his second Grand Tour victory overall. He became the second Colombian to win the Giro after Nairo Quintana did so in 2014. He first took the maglia rosa when he won atop the gravel finish at Campo Felice on stage 9. He proceeded to extend his lead in the second week, culminating in his victory on the shortened queen stage to Cortina d'Ampezzo. Despite his difficulties in the final week, he still had enough advantage to confirm his victory in Milan. He won by 1' 29" ahead of Damiano Caruso of Team Bahrain Victorious. Going into the race, Caruso was initially supposed to be a domestique for his team's original leader, Mikel Landa. After Landa crashed out on stage 5, Caruso took up the mantle as the team's leader. Caruso proceeded to consistently get high placings on the mountain stages before taking a stage victory on the last mountain stage to Alpe Motta. The last place on the podium was occupied by Simon Yates of Team BikeExchange, 4' 15" behind Bernal. After constantly losing time in the first two weeks, Yates peaked in the third week, leading to him taking a stage victory on the summit finish to Alpe di Mera.
In the race's other classifications, Peter Sagan of Bora–Hansgrohe took the points classification title. He first took the maglia ciclamino after winning the sprint on stage 10. Geoffrey Bouchard of AG2R Citroën Team took the mountains classification title after consistently taking maximum points on the stages' early climbs. As a result of him winning the maglia rosa, Bernal also took home the young riders classification as the best-placed rider under the age of 25. Dries De Bondt of Alpecin–Fenix took home the titles in the intermediate sprint classification and the combativity classification while Simon Pellaud of Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec won the breakaway classification as the rider who had the highest number of kilometres on the breakaway. In the team classifications, Ineos Grenadiers took home the Trofeo Fast Team as the team whose top three riders had the lowest aggregate time while Team Bahrain Victorious took home the fair play classification as one of the three teams who did not get any sanction in the whole race. They won the tiebreaker as a result of Caruso taking the second place in the GC.
Cite error: There are <ref group=N> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=N}} template (see the help page).
- ^ "Giro d'Italia to start from Sicily in 2021". SBS. 27 March 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
- ^ "Giro d'Italia to start from Sicily in 2021". Eurosport Asia. 26 March 2019. Archived from the original on 17 May 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
- ^ "Sicily confirmed as host of Giro d'Italia 2021 start". CyclingNews. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
- ^ Farrand, Stephen (4 February 2021). "2021 Giro d'Italia to start in Turin". CyclingNews. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
- ^ Farrand, Stephen (24 February 2021). "Giro d'Italia 2021 route revealed". CyclingNews. Retrieved 24 February 2021.