Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) and Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers) took top honors in the Challenge of the Stars, a revenge for the Giro d'Italia. Organized by RCS Sport, organizer of the Giro d'Italia, the online event pitted riders divided into groups of climbers or sprinters against each other on the Bkool online platform.

Created by Giro d'Italia organizer RCS Sport and held for the first time during the spring COVID-19 in May, this head-to-head knockout format included two races.

In the climber semifinals, first Challenge of the Stars winner Giulio Ciccone (Trek Segafredo) eliminated Giro d'Italia winner Tao Geoghegan Hart, while Almeida beat Herm Vanhocke. All-rounder Bauke Mollema was spotted by Harold Tejada, while Germany's Ben Zwiehoff defeated two-time Vuelta a España winner Primoz Roglic.

In the long-awaited semifinals, Almeida defeated Ciccone to set up a final with Zwiehoff. The Deceuninck quickstep proved to be too much for the German, who struggled at first but came away with the win.

"It was a very hard, short course, but it was intense right from the start. In the first round I had a good rhythm from the start and kept it until the end. In the second round, just when I was leading, Ciccone had a problem and the match ended earlier than expected," said a delighted Almeida. In the final, my opponent started very fast. It was hard to keep up with him and at one point I was about five seconds behind, but then I went full throttle and caught up to him and won by a few seconds. I'm happy to end a great season with this win," Joanne said after winning the Climber's Challenge of the Stars.

"This is a hard race. It's very different from the open road. It's hard to put up such an explosive effort, especially in December. These competitions are fun and I enjoyed them; 2020 was a special year for me. The way I raced the Giro was very different from previous years and I think I did really well and proved that I am on a whole new level. In the future I want to try to win a stage on the Corsa Rosa."

In a sprint contest, Swift held off Pascal Ackermann and Tim Merlier to take the title over Arnaud Demar. Caleb Yuan and Sam Bennett were eliminated in the quarterfinals.

"This is a hard race, very different from the open road. It is quite difficult to put up such an explosive effort, especially in December. These competitions are fun and I enjoyed them; 2020 was a special year for me. The way I raced in the Giro was completely different from previous years, I worked really hard and I think I proved that I have reached a whole new level. In the future, I want to try to win a stage in the Corsa Rosa," Swift said.