Amazing Lucca: really too old to pass by?

He crosses the finish line in tears and doesn't know that in the team car behind him, sporting director Contessa has started doing the same much earlier. Riccardo Lucca won by force in a professional race And it's his first time, too. Behind him is an elite racing group, because to win, you have to break away, and they don't always come after you. Carboni's fall on the penultimate descent probably gave him an advantage., but everyone had seen that curve and the ski sprint of the rider from the Marche region perhaps speaks of too much enthusiasm.

Race for redemption

It is the race of those who want to make their voice heard and Lucca he's one of those who got used to walking with stones in his shoesLast year he won six races wearing the General Store jersey, but he paid dearly for being already 24 years old. As Alfio Locatelli he heard from a prosecutor that at the same age he was already old, the Trentino from Rovereto simply found the doors closed.

"Yesterday was a bad day," he says. "I paid dearly for the Grappa. I lost more than seven minutes, and this morning I was almost ten minutes behind in the standings. That's why I joined that large breakaway. I was convinced they would catch us, but instead they stopped.Carboni tried before me, but he fell. And when I arrived, I was crying…».

WorldTour Gregario

His name pops up in the chronicles of the last stages and from the successes of past years e suddenly the victory lines up the various traits and composes the identikit of a strong rider who perhaps let time slip away in the early years of his career.

«We all knew about Riccardo's great qualities – says Davide Rebellin exhausted at the finish line – He has a great engine and deserves to continue at a higher level., because he's a winner who also knows how to work as a team. He deserves a chance."

He is on the same wavelength Ilario Contessa, who had already worked with Lucca in his first stint in the Marche region Work Service.

«The first day – he says in seventh heaven – was the strongest of all, but he paid for his inexperience in being the only continental athlete and was unable to manage the finalIt's okay that he won. friend Scaroni, but that day didn't go well. In light of today, however, we'll make do. Riccardo could be a very good domestique for a WorldTour, let's hope he can at least try in a professional championship."

The closed doors

Lucca doesn't cry anymore now and when she says that No one has yet looked for him to turn professional, he does it by throwing up his arms.

«Maybe I wasted some time – he says – but certainly My junior years were the last years where they didn't let kids that young through.Now I use those mistakes of mine to show them to our under 23s, to correct them when necessary. The team is going in the right direction, we won four races with four different riders and now the U23s will go to the Giro, while I will have the Giro del Veneto and then the Italian championships on a distance I have never doneThe strongest riders will be there, it will still be an experience. Nobody looked for me, while many continue to pass by. But then I see that many pass quickly, they don't find the right pedal stroke and they are in difficulty."

Frontal attack

Sirolo is reflected in the Adriatic in a first hint of holidays and beaches. Antonio Nibali, exhausted after the finish line, said he tried and that his idea was more or less the same as the one put into action by Lucca. Go over the top with 5-6 seconds on the penultimate pass on the GPM and then go straightBecause the descent, he said, was better done alone than in a group.

The finale proposed Tesfatsion's frontal attack on Zana, who however responded without particular difficultyAnd while the Vicenza native pedals toward the long-awaited victory, the Eritrean rider's confidence grows every day. Who knows if some big name has already set its sights on him too.