None of the 164 riders remaining in the Giro d'Italia suffered from the heat on the road to Genoa, where summer weather intensified and promised to cook the riders day after day through the third week.

The athletes faced temperatures near 30°C all day while traveling from Emilia Romagna to Liguria, with few cool breezes along the Mediterranean coast.

Many of the athletes shed liters of sweat during the 204 km from Parma to Genoa, leaving a trail of white salt on their jerseys and shorts. While the joy of victory eased Stefano Aldani's suffering, everyone across the finish line looked exhausted. They had ridden 12 stages, but there were nine more days of racing to go before they finished in Verona, including a final week of mountains.

Dronehopper-Androni Giocattoli's Edoardo Zardini, who finished 14th, gave his all in the breakaway group, but had a thousand eyes for those who did not make it. Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe) pulled away by more than eight minutes to move up to 13th overall, but the effort did not seem worth it as he could pay the price in the hilly stages around Turin this weekend and the Alpine stage to Cogne on Sunday.

According to the weather forecast, the Giro d'Italia is expected to remain similarly hot until next Tuesday, stage 16 in the Aprica (Italian Central Alps). Even in Aprica, at an elevation of 1173 meters, the temperature is expected to be 21°C (70°F), meaning that at least the next three stages will suffer from the heat. On Friday's road along the valley to Cuneo, temperatures rose to 30°C and will continue to do so on Saturday's hilly stage near Turin. Riders will ride a hot 90 km on Sunday, finishing in Cogne in the cool Alpine air.

The overall contending peloton, which finished 9:08 behind Ordani in Genoa, raced at a more consistent pace, but all riders were suffering from heat and fatigue after the 200 km stage.

Below the uphill finish in the center of Genoa, as the team buses approached the last kilometer, the riders immediately received drinks from Soinier to cool down, refresh, and begin recovering for Friday's stage.

Richard Kalapas was escorted by teammates Ben Swift and Richie Porte, and the Ineos Grenadiers riders were eager to get their leader on the team bus as quickly as possible. Almost everyone quickly followed them on the 100-km ride to their hotel in San Remo.

Mathieu van der Pol and Oscar Riesebeck moved a little to the podium area to congratulate Aldeni, but then headed for the team bus. The only athletes who had to spend time in the podium area were those wearing different jerseys and those selected for anti-doping. They made sure to take in water and solids quickly to begin their recovery.

Magnus Court (EF Education-Easy Post) joined the breakaway group that decided the stage, but after 175 km of intense racing, he was separated on the final climb up Valico di Trencasco. He relaxed to recover from his struggles under the Italian sun and finished 15:04 ahead of Ordani at the back of the GC group.

"It was hot ......" Dane said, explaining the effect the heat had on the race and the advantage of being in the breakaway.

"It could definitely affect everyone.

"In a breakaway group, it's actually easier to control your eating because you have easy access to the team cars and you can spray yourself with ice packs and water bottles to keep yourself cool."

Cote is known for reviewing hotel rooms, keenly identifying the best or worst facilities. The quality of the team hotel also affects how well or how poorly the athletes recover from their daily races.

"The last two nights we had hot nights because there was no air conditioning in the rooms. If this heat continues, let's hope things improve."