Giulio Ciccone slips into the Polka Dot jersey on Stage 15 of the Tour de France.
Giulio Ciccone has had his eyes on the Polka Dot jersey since the Tour de France began in the Basque Country. The playful Italian didn’t rush at first, knowing that the significant points came deep into the Tour, when the fatigue would be already intense. Cicco raced his Tour de France aggressively, firstly in the hunt for a first-ever Tour stage win which gave him the opportunity to snatch some early King of the Mountains points.
Lidl-Trek went all in to get Giulio Ciccone and Mattias Skjelmose in the breakaway, a fight that took the combined strength of the team to win. Cicco picked up 16 points in today’s stage, putting him equal with the incumbent King of the Mountains, Neilson Powless, but Lidl-Trek’s Italian snatched the jersey thanks to a countback of who had won the highest-ranked climbs.
Giulio's reaction to taking the jersey:
"I think today I did the maximum I could do because the legs were not super, so in the end I gave everything I could. The main goal was the jersey today so that meant being in the breakaway. I was there with Skjelmose so, at one point, we thought about the jersey for me and the stage for him but, yeah, in these stages you just never know. It is always hard but, I think we did a really great job."
"For the moment, I will enjoy the rest day with this jersey and then we will start again the fight. It will be a long one in the last week. For a climber, winning this jersey is maybe one of the best things you could ask for in this life because it is the pinnacle. When I was young I always saw this jersey on the TV and now that I am wearing it, it's great and I really like this feeling."
