Mountain challenges are street fights, where Usually the one who hits first wins or, if he suffers a blow, is able to immediately give two more. Explain it to someone who is used to striking first like Bernal, who in moment when Yates would have attacked him, He should have stayed put and let his teammates defend him..
The time of wisdom
Egan hears the point and agrees: it was strange, and yet the realism with which he explains the defense towards Alpe di Mera puts us in front of a much more lucid champion and more complete than one might sometimes imagine.
«At this moment – he says – my goal is to arrive in the pink jersey until Milan and win the Tour of Italy. When I need to move and run, and I have the legs, I'm the first to start… fights.But I know that at the moment there is a rider stronger than me and so the thing to do is manage the advantage accumulated in the last few days, when I was able to attack and move the raceBehind these two and a half minutes is the work of the entire team; it's not just my advantage. It's theirs too. And I don't want to risk wasting their hard work by making mistakes.. And today we took a very important step towards that goal."
Fear behind us
He was scared. During an exchange of messages with those who know him best, it was pointed out to us that in the interview after Sega di Ala, Egan had fearful eyes. It hadn't happened many times that he was dropped on a climb like Yates had been and that crisis risked carrying over into the following days.
«This was a very important day – he confirms – after what happened two days ago. That evening I tried to eat well and recover. Same thing yesterday. I ate well during the stage and In the evening I started to fill up on carbohydratesAfter today's sensations, I'm confident for tomorrow. It will be important to recover well this evening too. arrive at the time trial with the strength needed».
Altitude effect
But in the meantime the scenario is not what he expected, even if having studied his workouts on Strava, it was quite predictable that as the altitude effect wore off, its performance would return to normal..
"But I thought the opposite would happen," he says, "that is, I would lose ground in the first stages and end up on a high. In my head, the first stop where to earn was Montalcino, but when we got there, I already had an advantage. But the point these days isn't that I'm sick, because I'm fine. It's just that Yates is better.
«That's why I am happy to have had an experienced teammate like Castroviejo at my sideHe said to me, “Don't worry, I'll take care of it!” It's hard to stay calm when they jump in and make some money right away. But I thought: I don't go slowly and sooner or later the others will have to take a breather too.Today we ran like this, after I made a mistake in following him the other day. Then it's true that I slowed down a bit in the final. Maybe I could have used 10 seconds less, I don't know. But I would have wasted energy that will be better to meet again tomorrow and SundayAt this point, it's better to exploit the advantage than to find myself short of legs in the time trial..."
