Despite the predictable nature of Vingegaard’s charge to pink, the race’s 21 stages gave the 184-strong peloton plenty of chances for daily glory.
Highlights of the race included Alberto Bettiol’s explosive launch into Verbania on stage 13 and Filippo Ganna’s dominant time trial victory in Massa on stage 10.
Spain’s Igor Arrieta and Portugal’s Afonso Eulalio’s battle on a treacherous stage five was a stone-cold classic. The pair battled for victory in torrential rain, before suffering identical heavy late crashes after losing their front wheels on left-hand corners on roads covered by streams of rainwater, leaving them with cuts and ripped Lycra.
The win for UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Arrieta came after the severely depleted team lost their three best riders in one crash on the similarly treacherous stage two in Bulgaria, including one of its biggest contenders for pink in Britain’s Adam Yates – whose identical twin brother Simon won last year’s edition of the race.
Despite losing key riders, UAE ended up winning four stages, three of them coming with some superbly adaptive performances from Ecudorian Jhonatan Narvaez.
Vingegaard takes home just under 116,000 euros (£100,000) for the pink jersey, plus 11,000 euros for each of his five stage wins, a lot of which will be shared between his seven team-mates who worked for him across the race.
One thing which didn’t survive was the attempted cultivation of moustache, which was abandoned mid-race after the Dane claimed he resembled “a teenager”.
France’s Paul Magnier won the cyclamino points jersey and 10,000 euros – a surprise given the hot favourite was Milan.
The blue king of the mountains jersey and 5,000 euros went to the highly combative and much-loved home favourite Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek.
But it came after throwing a full bottle back at his team helper when frustrated with progress on stage 16 and in a lighter moment after a fan filled his back pockets full of ice lollies., external
The race’s best viral moment, however, went to Vingegaard’s young domestique Tim Rex, who was leading the team up a steep climb on stage 14 after being pushed so hard by mentor Victor Campenaerts that his pained face became etched into the memories of cycling fans forever., external
