CARI' (Switzerland) – How long is eighteen minutes while you wait for someone who doesn't arrive? It even rained at the finish line in this ski resort in the Canton of Ticino, but now that Vingegaard has finished his work and seeing Gall and Hindley coming up behind him, it started to get hot again. The riders arrive one by one. Those who held on are exhausted; those who gave up look decidedly better.. Near the masseurs of the Red Bull-Bora Hindley arrived and then Zwiezhoff, Vlasov, then Aleotti and only at this point, 18'06” later Vingegaard comes to stop Pellizzari.
It's passed a month from victory at Tour of the Alps And while waiting to hear his voice, it makes you wonder if they might have made a mistake on the approach. Is it that easy to maintain top condition for more than a month? How did they work in Val Senales? Maybe Giulio was also wrong, having been perfectly misled by the media, in putting too much pressure on himself.. Moreover, in Red Bull, which does not have a supreme leader to help him grow, like Piganzoli with Vingegaard, It's easy to fall into the mistake of expecting the moon.
Pellizzari initially does not speak, he has a bruised and exhausted faceHe shakes hands with Aleotti, whose bike was taken away for scanning, and without it, the Bolognese can't get off the bus.
Full speed ahead from the first kilometer
Pellizzari has slow gestures, like who finds himself where he doesn't want to be and looks around disoriented. He puts on his cape, puts on a hat, and wraps himself up in everything he can to prepare for the descent on the half-broken road that is carrying riders one by one back to the buses.
“It was hard from the start,” he says. “I had no legs. At a certain point there was too much time left to go and I decided to give up.I was at full speed from the first kilometer. I got back up and now I hope to be able to recover something in the next two days, so that find the strength to bring Jai (Hindley, ed.) to the podium».
The change of tactics
Anyone who saw him on the bus this morning can confirm that he was well and perhaps this is why the team, at the beginning of the final climb, went ahead to set the paceAnd just at that moment Pellizzari began to lose contact, with only Van Dijke waiting for him, while the rest of the team remained ahead with Hindley.
«I held on too long, I think – he says – Now I have to change my mentality and think about helping Hindley for the podium in RomeI don't know if we can think of a stage: let's see, with these legs it's difficult. On the first climb I tried to bluff a bit, but then... we had to change tactics, because I wasn't feeling well».
A programming problem?
From the team there is no clear closure Horn at the Stairs, when the surrender of the young player from the Marche was unexpected and difficult to manage. The feeling this time is that Bora Hansgrohe has understood that there is not much to save and It's okay for journalists to ask their protégé questions.
The theme of the error in the preparation is perhaps the most reliable, combined with the after-effects of the illness that eliminated Pellizzari from the Giro classification on the day of the arrival in Emilia. The fact of going too fast at Tour of the Alps, on the other hand, is a step that has cost dearly to more than one Giro d'Italia hopeful. Added to this is the fact that the rider from the Marche region was already going strong at the beginning of the season, between the Valenciana and the Tirreno-Adriatico, while Piganzoli, for example, emerged gradually and is now reaping some good results.
Certainly the stubbornness of Pila's day It's a faded memory. We thought the rest day would restore fresh energy to our legs, but that wasn't the case: thanks to the great heat and the suffocating pace imposed by the Visma-Lease a Bike, it was like jumping straight from the frying pan into the fireSome have speculated that Pellizzari might retire at this point: we hope not; he might have the edge to win a stage. And leave the Giro strong on the podium of his teammate.
