Igor ARRIETA. 10 with honors. Do you want to understand cycling, the rhetoric of a sport that is substance? Watch carefully on the "device" and on the platform you prefer this stage. Go back and watch it, show it to the girls and boys who dream of winning on a bike: you'll find everything there. The mistakes not to make, plenty of them. The desire not to surrender, not to give up, to believe in it until the very end, even when everything seems already lost. It's the essence of cycling, which becomes a school of life – and forgive me for the cliché, but in certain cases even worn-out phrases make sense -. Igor Arrieta is not a dragon in descents, he goes down like a snowplow, with the bike sideways, his backside unable to counterbalance a body that is petrified with fear and is a manifest display of incompetence. Igor holds on, though, until the end. He wins in a comeback, gifting UAE their second consecutive stage victory, after a terrible start, with the loss of three teammates, each one stronger than the last. A "brutal" stage, as the Spanish say. A sublime stage, we say, we who have been nourished by this sport our whole lives. Poetry.

Afonso EULALIO. 10. The Portuguese rider from Bahrain – Victorious is an immense protagonist of this hellish day, equal to Igor Arrieta. Thank goodness that today both of them have their well-deserved reward: Igor gets the stage, Afonso gets the pink jersey. Perhaps the Portuguese rider could ease up a bit toward the end, to wait for his adventure companion, who certainly wouldn't deprive him of the pink jersey, but instead he goes full throttle. Racing is racing, the riders say: today these two guys are making the race and it's the God of cycling who sorts things out, and today he's the most lucid of all. Fair.

Thomas SILVA. 9. Yesterday he looked like a fool, today he puts back on the wings of the royal eagle and returns to wander up there at the top, where only those like him dare to go. Tough.

Lorenzo MILESI. 7. An incredibly tough pacemaker, of absolute level. The 24-year-old Movistar rider confirms his credentials as a racer. He doesn't spare his pedal strokes, doesn't count them: his weigh. Applause.

Christian SCARONI. 7. By now his level is this: he can only race at the highest level. Hats off.

Gianmarco GAROFOLI. 7. Another Italian kid who is growing and showing himself to the world. Growing in the academy of Soudal Quick-Step under Davide Bramati: a guarantee.

Andrea RACCAGNI NOVIERO. 7. The 22-year-old Ligurian kid is not afraid to show himself, has no fear of daring. He has personality, talent, and the desire to emerge: we too have something in the fire. It just so happens he's always part of the Soudal brood: he's a Brama kid. Hope.

Giulio CICCONE. 1. He dreams for just one day. A jersey and nothing more. He had said it: the team is for Gee and Milan. He, Cicco, is here for the stages. Today they send him to the mat: against his will.

Jonas VINGEGAARD. 8. He doesn't lose his composure, doesn't even seem to get wet. Always well covered, from head to toe, including his hands. He covers up before the descent, not like many who today prove to be simply disorganized – and I want to be kind -. He sets an example in this too: show in cycling schools how to race, how it's done.

Mathys RONDEL. 8. Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the toughest of them all?… The Frenchman from Tudor ends up crashing into the rear window of the UAE team car and clearly demonstrates that he's more unbreakable than glass. Jokes aside: special people these riders are… Nothing like diving fouls. Heroic.

Luca PALETTI. 6. The Bardiani CSF 7 Saber kid is champing at the bit, eager to do battle. Before the start he warms up and when Stefano Allocchio, race director of the Giro, lowers the checkered flag, he takes off like a rocket. Nobody follows him. They watch him perplexed. He, equally perplexed, turns around and realizes that nobody has made a move. He gets back in line: maybe next time, as long as someone has the desire to go with him.

LOTTO Intermarchè. 17. After losing Arnaud De Lie, today Milan Menten doesn't restart and along the way Joshua Giddings also stops. Like UAE Emirates, Lotto continues the race with five riders. Tim De Jong from Pic-nic and Samuele Battistella from EF Education Easypost also stop. General count: 14 withdrawals so far.