Allo Stablinski Velodrome it's been a while Individual pursuit qualification concluded, A splendid competition, the reason for which is unclear. Evidently, skateboarding is more attractive. Whose attraction is unknown, given that not even the skaters knew there were Olympics for this discipline? But that's the way it is, and we can only enjoy this discipline even more in its world championship guise. This discipline has provided us with some sensational surprises this afternoon: Filippo Gana he doesn't go to the final for the gold.
A duel was announced between Ganna, Lambie (the world record holder) and Jonathan Milan. And instead it happens that Pippo gets off to a terrible start. He's 24th out of 24 at the end of the first lap. He makes a comeback, but it's not enough. And so all our hopes are placed in the Friulian with whom we exchanged a few words during these days in France.
Jonny in the final
This morning when Jonathan left the hotel he was very calm. “No tension,” he told us with his typical seraphic air. He'd slept well and was fired up for the 4.000 meters that awaited him. After warming up with Pippo, first on his wheel and then with the roles reversed, the newly crowned European champion in the specialty had no choice but to wait for the start.
Jonny starts strong, but not very strong. Even though Villa disagrees. Then he progresses. He stretches out. And in the final he clocks a good 4'05", which seems to be a really good time on the not particularly fast Stablinski track. The problem is that Ashton Lambie beats him by more than two seconds. A solid performance for both, but we saw more strength in the legs of the world record holder.
But it's also true that the final is a different story, and Milan is starting to get used to the pressure. And then there's a small fact to hold onto. In the final kilometer the American dropped a little more than the Italian and who knows, maybe this could be a valuable key to understanding and a good sign.
Lamon's advice
But before thinking about tonight's final, we can't help but take a small step back from last night's triumph. A triumph that saw Milan in the role of pitcher, something a bit unusual for someone of his size and with such long levers. In addition to the change between Bertazzo e Lamon This was a curious piece of news. In Tokyo, this delicate phase had been entrusted to Francesco Lamon, who had by now become a launch expert.
"It's something new," says Milan, "but we had to do it. I've only done the start once before. A couple of years ago at the World Cup in Australia. I did two one-and-a-half-lap sprints. In Montichiari, however, we had tried it. But the race is one thing, and training is another. Last night I did a couple of laps, a bit for the first time and a bit more afterward. Everything went according to plan. We didn't make any mistakes."
"Of course, Lamon always does well, not that I did badly. In fact, I did a great job, but in general he's a different beast. Yesterday he gave me a lot of advice: Jonathan, don't start too fast, do it like this here, do it like this there, if you go long then it's a problem for Ganna. He took me aside and we talked for an hour. Even though he's sorry he couldn't be there (Lamon did make the first round, ed.), he cares a lot about the group."
And the group cares about him, since last night, as soon as they got off their bikes, Milan wrapped his arm around him. He was the first one to go looking for him. And shortly after, the others joined in the embrace, and together they lifted Francesco up.
“Strange” track
But these are also behind-the-scenes moments. In a velodrome, people talk about everything, and so they discover that: "That it's a strange track," he says. Jonathan Milan which in fact takes up the words of Martina Fidanza. The giant from Friuli explains to us that the Stablinski circuit has very tight curves that aren't ideal for gaining speed.
«It's not a slow track, but it's certainly not as fast as Tokyo. It's also hot, but... well, I don't think the world record will come from here. And then you see"—and he points to the curve before the finish—"at the entrance there's a kind of hump. It's very annoying.
"Okay, now we understand where it is and how to do it, but in training you can do it, but in the race you can't! In the race there are 16 different corners... In the quartet you also had to be careful with the gearbox, you risk it shooting out a bit, above the red line."
Shorter ratios
And also because of this technical situation on the track, some changes were made to the bikes, starting with the gear ratios. The Azzurri opted for a 62×14, all of them. Overall, you travel a little more easily than in Tokyo.
"Exactly, partly because of the track and partly because we're not in the same condition," Milan concludes. "We don't have a world record in our legs right now. In Tokyo, I even used a 64 in the semifinals and final, while the others used a 63. But we're doing well. The fact that we've twice clocked 3:46" and that four of us finished says it all."
Now all we have to do is wait for the individual pursuit final. The appointment is for 20:36 pm, we are psyched for this Italy-United States, aka Milan-Lambie. And let's not forget that there's also a bronze medal up for grabs with Pippo. The world is watching. We're cheering...
