SA’s De Bod proves a point at the Giro

For an hour last Saturday, Stefan de Bod was the leader of the Giro d’Italia. For an hour, the South African was the fastest over the 19.6km time trial from Fossacesia Marina to Ortona, the first stage of the first grand tour of the year.

He had an hour to breathe and think of a journey that has taken him from a teenage talent to leading a race on the biggest stage of them all, wearing the SA flag on his jersey as the time trial champion of his country.

“Riding the time trial in the SA champs skinsuit was a dream come true,” said De Bod. “It was special and gave me that extra motivation to do well and make the country proud.”

He would eventually finish 17th, 1 min 17 sec down on stage winner Remco Evenepoel of Belgium, but he had proven a point and repaid the trust of his new team, EF Education-Easypost, the American outfit run by former rider Jonathan Vaughters.

“Stefan is a rider I’ve watched for quite a while,” said Vaughters when he signed De Bod. “He’s an underrated talent that can be a key asset to a team like ours trying to focus on big results in hilly races. His time trialling had gone under the radar, but is an example of his level of talent. My hope is we bring him up to his potential, and he becomes invaluable within this team.”

This is De Bod’s fifth year on the World Tour and his third different team. He got his foot in the door with Dimension Data-Qhubeka’s feeder team, before graduating to their World Tour squad. He moved to Astana for two seasons and has now signed a two-year contract with Vaughters.

“EF Education-EasyPost is a great team,” said De Bod. “It’s very different from what I am used to. We work and race hard, but we also have fun. The spirit in the team is always good which is important. The team is full of great people. Everyone is helping each other to reach their best. For me, I believe I will reach my potential in this team during these two years.”

When De Bod won the 947 cycle race in Joburg as a teenager, there were many who took notice. He felt it was the start of a journey that would take him to Europe and beyond.

“When I won 947, I was 18 years old, and that day felt like I was on top of the world. It’s great memories, but I soon got a reality check when I started racing in Europe the following year. Back then, doing a grand tour was a dream I believed was achievable.”

He made his grand tour debut in 2020 at the Vuelta a Espana, and was selected for the Tour de France in 2021 with Astana, where he learnt how quickly things can turn.

“Unfortunately, I had some bad luck in TDF on stage eight where I crashed pretty hard, and on stage nine I was out of the race. Today, I have a lot more experience in these kinds of races, so I use that to be a better rider,” said De Bod. “What I learned from previous grand tours is that you really have to look after your body. This could be nutrition, keeping warm when riding down a 20km mountain in zero degrees, or just simply pacing yourself during the important stage in the three weeks of racing. You need to be as fast as possible on the bike and the rest of the time you need to save as much energy as possible and recover well.”

The EF Giro team has the most different nationalities of any team in the 2023 event and a broad range of options for success. As of the fifth stage, De Bod is sitting near the top of the bunch overall, watching, waiting for his chance.

“I think everyone in the team has the capability of winning a stage. We have certain goals that we will chase, but we are open to playing the game when opportunities arise,” said De Bod. “We have general classification ambitions with Hugh Carthy and Rigoberto Uran. Also we have young Ben Healy on his first grand tour. With the amazing start of his season, who knows what he will achieve. I have a big job to support our leaders during the race, but I will target breakaways and look for stage wins when I get the opportunity.”