Damiano Caruso has been a giant. The champion from Ragusa, at 38 years old, closes his final Giro d'Italia in ninth place overall and manages to defend the white jersey of his teammate Eulalio, who proved himself on the Piancavallo climb by resisting Piganzoli's attack.

"The performance is more than good, the final week has always been my strong point – says Caruso –. I'm very happy for Afonso (Eulalio, ed.), because today he fought like a lion and we brought home the white jersey that was our objective. Then, well, we both made it into the top 10 (Eulalio sixth) and so everything is perfect, we couldn't have asked for better than this".

Damiano, is there any desire to continue in 2027?

"No. This was my last Giro, I've decided to close like this, with this beautiful memory".

Second in 2021, fourth in 2023 and fifth in 2025: Caruso has always been the best Italian in the general classification. In this Giro, Caruso was preceded by Davide Piganzoli, eighth place, who is 15 years younger than him.