The final stage and once the peloton has arrived by plane in the morning, there’s a quick trip to the beach followed by a criterium around Rome.

If you’ve been watching for all three weeks today’s stage has a later than usual finish at 6.45pm CEST.

Channel hopping: these days there are often several races to watch on one day. At the same time as the Giro the Boucles de la Mayenne in France and the Tour of Norway were on Eurosport. The Giro had two races, the one with Tadej Pogačar and the other with all the rest.

The early break built up a decent lead but the bunch chased and Giulio Pellizzari surged clear from the peloton on the first climb of Monte Grappa to join the remnants of the breakaway. The second time up Pellizzari went solo.

It looked as if Pogačar and UAE might have to hurry up and attack because Pellizzari was over a minute clear with not much of the climb remaining and if the Italian could match him on the descent what would they do for the finish? Pogačar for a sixth stage, or a patron gifting a stage to a young rider on an invited team? In the time it took to reflect on what might happen here Pogačar attacked and soon Pellizzari was reeled in and overtaken, even if he did hang on for a while to see what it looked like.

From here on two races, Pogačar would go on to win the stage. A minute and a half clear at the top Monte Grappa, he would take more time on the descent to finish two minutes ahead of the rest.

Behind Dani Martinez attacked and got a small gap. Geraint Thomas and Ben O’Connor were struggling but had this continued it would just have widened the existing time gaps rather than changed the hierarchy. It all came back together during the descent. The only GC changes were Romain Bardet and Filippo Zana who had been dropped earlier, each slipping two places overall with Bardet ninth, Zana 11th and surpassed by Michael Storer who cracks the top-10.

Because of his attack Pellizzari will wear the mountains jersey tomorrow, there’s been a contest throughout the race to be the jersey carrier during Pogačar’s reign.

The Route: first a charter flight in the morning for the peloton to Rome. Then 125km and a copycat stage from last year. It starts in Eur – the district built for Benito Mussolini and now Rome’s business quarter – with a trip to Rome-on-Sea, aka Ostia, and back via Eur.

Then laps around Rome. The route isn’t quite a tourist bus tour of the city – there are too many things to fit in – but there’s plenty as the course passes the Colosseum and more.

The Finish: flat and with some urban cobbles – sampietrini for locals – on the approach and then a sweeping bend past the Colosseum, more cobbles with 400m to go.

The Contenders: Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) or Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep)? Milan found the finish in Padova a bit to hectic and became unhitched from his sprint train, today’s circuit finish should be more predictable for him and his potent leadout.

There’s always a chance for a last day surprise as we saw a year ago with Mark Cavendish winning. The “he’s been written off” Rome resurgence would fit nicely for Caleb Ewan (Jayco) but that’s hard to script. Another Australian Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is still hunting for a stage too and is first of the “hasn’t won a stage but has come closest” list but there’s no queue to be served. There’s always the chance of a late surprise, for example a flier from Filippo Ganna (Ineos).

| | Milan | | | Merlier | | | Groves |

Weather: warm and sunny, 26°C.

TV: KM0 is at 3.35pm CEST and the finish is forecast for 6.45pm CEST.

Postcard from Eur
Eur is Rome’s business district and Rome is, no surprise, the political capital of Italy. The race makes a long journey to Rome for what amounts to not much more than a victory parade and a premium criterium race and then everyone has to go back again, including all the vehicles. Too much? Possibly but the convoy has been touring Italy for weeks now and so one transfer is incremental, even if 536km is long. To their credit race organisers RCS have offered the media a special train. Still, instead of a long transfer ideally the race would visit Rome along the way.

It matters that races to go the capital cities and take place in front of politicians and other decision-makers. Last year saw Presidente Mattarella in attendance at the Giro and having the head of state show up is good for the sport and good for politicians.

Political capitals tend to have big populations too so this brings the sport to the people. Cycling is often a provincial sport, it takes place in the countryside and small towns. This can be charming, especially with good weather and the scenery shot from a helicopter. But it needn’t be exclusively so.

Races in capitals are rare. The grand tours usually manage it. The others, less so. Not the Tour de Suisse this year. For all the races in cyclesport-crazed Belgium, there’s the Brussels Cycling Classic that goes where others don’t. The Deutschland Tour doesn’t go to Berlin. The Tour of Denmark doesn’t visit Copenhagen. Neither the Tour de Pologne to Warsaw. And so on. The Tour of Britain for men and women alike did go to London but seems like it won’t any more, for now. But today the Tour of Japan concludes with stage in Tokyo, in Shinagawa.

Taking the sport to where people live and having an urban stage or two can be fun, especially if there’s a playful circuit to encourage lively racing. So while today is a long journey, hopefully Rome can stay on the route, ideally as a mid-race essential stop. Or even better, a finish after a vicious stage in the Apennines the day before.

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