Jhonatan Narváez, 29-year-old Ecuadorian cyclist from UAE Team Emirates, has achieved a hat-trick at Giro d'Italia, winning three of the eleven stages of the Grand Tour, outpacing Movistar rider Enric Mas in the final sprint, who came on the verge of his first stage win since 2022, but in reality Narváez kept control of the stage, fulfilling his promise of winning three stages of the Giro d'Italia.
Narváez, nicknamed "Lagarto" (Lizard) has now five stage victories at Giro d'Italia, after winning in 2020 and 2024. However, he admitted that Mas "scared" him, "because he almost tried to close me in the barriers, and I was on the limit", exhausted after a "day it was full gas racing. Not just in the uphill but the downhill also" and admitting that Mas is stronger than him on the climbs, so he "chose to play his game" (via Cycling Weekly).
With three wins, Narváez passes Jonathan Milan from Lidl-Trek with 111 points, and approaches Paul Magnier, who remains the leader in the point classification. Meanwhile, the Portuguese Afonso Eulálio from Bahrain Victorious defends his pink jersey 27 seconds ahead of the Danish Jonas Vingegaard from Visma, and 1 minute 57 seconds ahead of the Dutch Thymen Arensman from Netcompany Ineos.
