As you hopefully know, a large portion of my creative efforts this year have gone into making Instagram Reels. Here are the collected Instagram Reels for the 2023 Giro d’Italia from the @howtheracewaswon® Instagram account. Also available as a Vimeo Showcase if Meta businesses and/or Big Social aren’t something you want to deal with.
Stage 1: Wellp, Giro’s Over
From the outset, Remco Evenepoel was expected to dominate. These expectations were easily met. (excerpted from the Pretty Serious Bike Racing Podcast)
Stage 4: Can’t Even Give This Jersey Away
Evenepoel made it very clear he had no intention of keeping the maglia rosa all month long. DSM’s Andreas Leknessund seemed initially to have been left off that memo.
Stage 5: Never Look a Gift Gap in the Mouth
If I had to pick an Instagram Reel to sum up the first week of the 2023 Giro d’Italia, it’d be this. Never second-guess the gap at 7km to go. It’s the kindest 30-some-odd second GC loss you can hand the group behind.
Stage 6: Even the Late Catches were Meh
This is something of an anachronism because it didn’t come out until after Vuelta Burgos, but still—SD Worx managed to make it a lot more exciting.
Stage 8: Finally, a Little Classic Giro Action
EF’s Ben Healy was one of the breakout stars of this year’s race. Nice to see him deliver side-by-side action between the breakaway and GC groups.
Stage 10: Not Everything is Clever
The unfortunate flip-side of so many breakaway specialists shining at the 2023 Giro was the necessary reality that only a fraction of them get to win stages. I really thought De Marchi was up to something here, but it turns out, no.
Stage 13: Thibaut Pinot Teaches Bike Racing
I love the guy, but man—he will forever be his own toughest opponent.
Rest Day 2: Are We Ever Gonna Get a GC Race?
My favorite part is that everyone begrudgingly came around to my first rest day assertion that the GC race had been crummy. (excerpted from the Pretty Serious Bike Racing Podcast)
Stage 16: Almeida and Thomas Doing It Right
Can’t complain about Pinot and the first two weeks without giving a shout-out when the action gets good.
Stage 17: Sepp Kuss Appreciation Post
Kuss is the best mountain domestique currently riding and I will die on that hill (unless I have Sepp Kuss as my domestique in which case I’ll be fine).
Stage 18: Team DSM’s Near-Miss
My favorite part of this post was the “yes, but…” comments (including from lead-out rider Niklas Märkl himself) highlighting that DSM’s ostensibly premature drop-off also kept Dainese out of the scrum and late corners that foiled Milan and Cav. The internet still manages to be rad sometimes.
Stage 19: Pay No Attention to the Climbing Bike On Our Team Car
This single-ring, climbing-specific bike we’ve been hyping up? It’s for tomorrow. We’re definitely not going to stop to change onto it at the bottom of the final climb today. Especially not if you’re watching from inside the Ineos team car.
Stage 20: Final TT Mishaps are a Giro Tradition
Always the most exciting when they don’t negatively impact the final result.
Stage 21: Today We Spell Redemption C-A-V
It’s an Anchorman reference, people. But yes—nice to see the band get back together to send Cavendish out of his final Giro d’Italia on top.
Post-Race: That Was a Pretty Good Giro After All
I don’t love uphill TTs, but I can’t deny that the 2023 Giro’s last GC stage was the perfect conclusion.
(excerpted from the Pretty Serious Bike Racing Podcast)