The Easternmost stage of any grand tour, the Giro got underway in Budapest, a couple of years after it was intended. Green, White and Red were the colours of the day – horizontal for Hungary and vertical for Italy. This was echoed by the profile which was 190 km of flattish boring followed by 5 km of explosive climbing to the uphill sprint finish.

And what a finish! Everyone’s favourite wonderboy Mathieu van der Pink was the punchiest of the puncheurs and won over the brilliant young Eritrean, to find himself in Poel position. Meanwhile Caleb Ewan was in contention before the lights went out a few bike lengths from the line. There were a couple of other painful spills along the way, but no major pile-ups. “There were no wrecks and nobody drownded / in fact nuthin’ to laff at at all” in the immortal words of Stanley Holloway. Except van der Poel’s only mistake of the day when he uncorked the winner’s prosecco into his face. It’s a dangerous sport.

Team of the Day

Absolutely no doubt here. It’s Chapeau! to Paul’s ominously named Don’t ruin it for me who chalked up 5 of the first 6 finishers and over 1000 points (has anyone else managed that before?):

So DS Paul’s The Ruins sweep up nearly all the prizes going, except the one for most km in the breakaway, which was bagged by DS Bendey’s Yo Adrian (there must be a story behind that team name?) who included one of the Drone-Hopper guys out the front. But who else did we all pick? Here are the most popular of our team selections:

1. Mathieu van der Poel (8)
2. Richard Carapaz (7)
3. Mark Cavendish (7)
4. Simon Yates (6)
5. João Almeda (6)
6. Romain Bardet (5)
7. Tobias Foss (4)

There were also Jai Hindley, Hugh Carthy, Magnus Cort, Tom Dumoulin and Caleb Ewan who each turn up in 3 teams. We always seem to favour the British riders, but did you notice there is no Italian in those named so far!

Flag of the day

Visegrád, the Stage 1 destination , means “Upper Castle” – hence the hard climb to the finish. The triangular castle was built by King Béla IV who got trounced by the Mongol Army in a very one sided away fixture. He also had a few family “issues” due to favouring his younger daughter, leading to a 6 year civil war with his son Stephen. Dads, don’t respond to “who is your favourite child?” – it’s a trick question!

Links

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Credits and wotnot

• Image of Archangel Gabriel statue in Hero’s Square, Budapest: By Zala György sculptor; Photo: Original uploader was User:Tofalvi at hu.wikipedia, Public Domain, Gabor arkangyal – Heroes’ Square (Budapest) – Wikipedia
• Velogames Italy 2022 | Velogames Fantasy Cycling | (link to the minileague)
• By Thommy – This vector image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this file:, Public Domain, Flag of Visegrád – Visegrád – Wikipedia