Theres something about the cycling Grand Tours (Italy, France and Spain). Something about those 21 stages of cycling – the mix of mountain stages, sprint stages and those that favour the breakaway. The length of time of these grand tours allows for numerous stories to unfold, multiple narratives and main characters to chop and change. This Giro had so many good stories this year as it always does – Mads Pedersen sweeping to win four stages (a big effort); Wout van Aert (#inwoutwetrust) not only winning a spectacular stage 9 ending in Siena which was HUGE in itself after so many second places but setting up stages for other team members to win.

But the absolute most memorable thing is Simon Yates winning the overall race. He was sitting in 3rd place overall before the final mountain stage (Stage 20) when everyone’s eyes (and no doubt bets) were on 1st and 2^nd place to duke it out. It almost felt like the story of the tortoise and the hare – while 1^st and 2^nd only had eyes for each other Yates just sailed on past them with no counter attack and he kept sailing all the way to overall victory (with help from Wout van Aert).

Why does any of this matter? Because it’s the power of a story, a narrative. Some will say this is a story of redemption (Yates famously ‘lost’ a previous Giro on the same mountain), the story of a minor character who waltzed in and stole the show or some will say that the way this story unfolded was pre-ordained by destiny. The fact is that days later there is still analysis about this race – not just what went wrong but what went so right. It comes down to tactics, experience and then fundamentally how you are feeling on the day (let along how you are feeling after 19 previous days of racing).

Whether cycling is your thing or not – just know with these Grand Tours there is always a story. And this is going to be one for the ages.