The Giro d'Italia has always had a reputation for being a brutally demanding race. The stages are often long and complicated. The rivals are racing at full speed, and the weather is often uncooperative. Its most iconic climbs ( Mortirolo, Zoncolan, Colle delle Finestre, Stelvio, Passo Gavia, Marmolada , etc.) are among the toughest in the world, and winning this three-week competition is within the reach of very few.

In such a high-level competition, it's normal for some favorite to suffer a serious setback on an important stage and end up losing their chances in the general classification. But this year there have been several such cases, and it has caught our attention. Because we're not talking about a one-day "failure," but a genuine " explosion " that leaves them without any strength for the rest of the Giro.

The first to fall: Esteban Chaves

Before the start of the tenth stage, everything was looking good for Colombian rider Esteban Chaves . His leader, Simon Yates , had been wearing the pink jersey for four days and was second overall, just 32 seconds behind.

They had reaped the rewards of their feat in the sixth stage, which ended on Mount Etna . Chaves and Yates crossed the finish line together ahead of everyone else, securing the stage victory for the Colombian and the overall lead for the Briton. Witnessing this superiority, many of us thought the feared Team Sky would have a tough opponent to beat and that a great show lay ahead.

But everything changed on that fateful tenth stage. We were coming off a rest day, with the uncertainty that always entails, as some people feel good and others feel terrible. The stage ahead of the riders was the longest of the entire Giro (239 km), with extremely difficult summits like Fonte della Creta , Bruzzolana , and Gualdo Tadino , and Mitchelton-Scott was preparing to defend their lead.

But as soon as he started climbing the Fonte della Creta (category 2) slopes, it became clear that Chaves , one of the world's best climbers , didn't seem to be feeling well. The peloton had split in two, and the teams in the front group, seeing that Chaves had fallen behind and could eliminate the runner-up in the standings, accelerated mercilessly, making it impossible for him to reconnect with the group of favorites. Several teammates dropped back to try and help him, but Chaves was simply exhausted, exhausted.

The stage turned into a seemingly endless hell, and in the end, the Colombian lost 25 minutes and dropped to 39th overall . The Giro claimed its first TOP rider. Chaves finished the Giro in 72nd place, more than three hours behind Froome .

What had happened? At first, there was speculation that it was an allergy, but the runner and his team ultimately said he had simply run out of energy and that they had no clear explanation as to why.

Fabio Aru's turn

Stage 15 promised to be a great spectacle. Its 176 km route featured little-known climbs, such as the Passo della Mauria , the Passo Tre Croci , the Passo di Sant'Antonio , and the Costalissoio . None of them were first-category climbs because this year's organizers didn't want to visit the Pordoi , the Marmolada , or the Tre Cime di Lavaredo during the Dolomites. However, a tough battle was expected, and the cyclists didn't disappoint.

In the first hour, when the terrain was all uphill, they covered 42 kilometers. They were going full steam ahead! The whole stage was like that, like a train that never showed up, pushing everyone to their limits.

The final climb, the Costalissoio , which on paper didn't promise to be decisive, was seen by Briton Yates as his big opportunity and he went all out for the stage with 17 kilometers to go. The favorites couldn't keep up. Neither Froome nor Dumoulin were up to much of a run, and "Superman" López and Carapaz were only competing among themselves for the white jersey, unable to close in on Yates.

And Italian fans were asking, " What about Aru? Where's Fabio Aru? " The Italian, who had started the Giro among the favorites, hadn't performed well in any previous stages. Some might have thought he was trying to stay on track or that he was just biding his time, but this stage really exposed him and showed he simply wasn't up to the task. He suffered unspeakably and lost almost 20 minutes .

This defeat soured his temper for the following days. In the time trial, he was punished for taking advantage of the slipstream of the bikes, and four stages later, as the first climb of the day (the second-category Colle del Lys ) was being climbed, a furious Aru , overcome with his soul , dismounted and withdrew from the race .

Again, neither the runner nor the team were able to explain the reason for his poor performance, and they subjected him to several tests to assess his fitness.

Yates also explodes

Stage 19, in which Aru abandoned the race, will always be remembered for Chris Froome 's spectacular breakaway 80 kilometers from the finish. This turned the race around and he took the lead, a position he held until the final day.

On that historic day, the main casualty was Simon Yates . Up to that point, with his three stage wins and the positive feeling he had left behind, everything was looking good for the British rider. He had only faltered in the previous stage, losing 28 seconds to Froome and Dumoulin , but he had managed to retain the pink jersey. It seemed that, at 25 years old, Yates was starting to get used to dealing with the best in the peloton.

But Froome's attack changed everything . He asked his team to line up everyone at the Finestre pass and, seeing his rivals suffering, he disguised himself as Contador and rode alone to the finish in a solitary 80-kilometer breakaway, securing the stage win and the overall lead.

Some of the strongest, like Carapaz, Pinot, Moreno, and Dumoulin, lost "only" three minutes. Peio Bilbao and Pozzovivo finished eight minutes behind, Henao eleven minutes behind, and Luis León Sánchez 19 minutes behind. Yates lost 38 minutes and lost the Giro on that stage .

At the finish line, there was no clear explanation for such weakness, as he wasn't even close to the favorites. Once again, the team promised to study the data, and the rider was determined to learn from the experience, but no one told us why he sank so badly.

In the end, Yates finished the Giro in 21st place, more than an hour and a quarter behind the leader.

Pinot is dying next to the team car

The penultimate stage of the Giro ran from Susa to Cervinia . Frenchman Thibaut Pinot was heading into the race in third place in the general classification, dreaming of a podium finish in Rome the following day, but fate had an unpleasant surprise in store for him. On the second of the day's three climbs ( San Pantaleon ), he crashed out, couldn't keep up with the favorites, and seemed to be feeling really ill (it later emerged that he was running with a fever).

The team car pulled up alongside him, and several teammates surrounded him to try and help him, creating an unforgettable image. The team was supporting their injured leader. From the car window, they passed him a few bottles, which he ultimately refused, and his teammates patted him on the back and offered him a spot of relief. Television could only show us these images from a distance, but they clearly showed a rider who was suffering from some serious health problem and who only continued out of pure pride and class. He reached the finish line more than 45 minutes later and was taken directly to the hospital in Aosta .

Pinot spent the night in the hospital, and doctors diagnosed him with the beginnings of pneumonia, dehydration, and a fairly high fever, which they were able to control. However, he was strictly prohibited from starting the race the following day, so the Giro was over for him.

What causes these "explosions" in such outstanding cyclists?

It may not be due to a single factor, but to several elements that have occurred at the same time.

The commute? The Giro began with three stages contested in Israel, which forced the riders to travel to Italy to continue the usual route. Furthermore, during some mountain stages, teams complained that the finish line was quite far from the team hotels, which took away from their rest time. This may have played a role, but in reality, it's something everyone suffered equally and didn't turn out to be such a big problem, so we're ruling it out as a possible cause.

Suspicious substances?: On social media, some people say the fainting spells are because cyclists ride cleaner these days, and therefore suffer more and have more trouble keeping up with such demanding challenges. This is a difficult argument to refute or prove, as it's impossible for us to know to what extent it has merit. Therefore, it's a question we won't address.

The temperature? Although rain made an appearance in some stages, it must be said that temperature wasn't a problem. We didn't experience any climbs over snowy passes (as has happened in many previous editions), and the heat in the sunny areas (especially Sicily) wasn't as intense (only a little in Israel). We're also ruling out this cause.

The route? Although the Giro has maintained its level and toughness, this year's edition has avoided the big climbs of the Dolomites. Neither the Mortirolo, Gavia, nor Stelvio were climbed. We've seen stages packed with a good number of climbs, but to be honest, we can't say the route has been much more demanding than in previous years.

Nutrition? A person living in a city who engages in moderate activity typically consumes around 2,000 calories a day at most. A professional cyclist can double that amount, and almost triple it during extremely demanding stages. But we assume that professional teams have sufficiently trained professionals to manage the nutritional needs of their riders. Therefore, it shouldn't be the cause of these fainting spells.

So what happened?

At the moment, we don't have a convincing explanation. It just happened . We'll have to wait for the teams' analyses and obtain more information to be able to form an informed opinion. This shows us that a sport like cycling, with over 100 years of professional competition, still has aspects we don't fully understand, and it encourages us to try to understand it better every day.

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