CERVINIA – Good grief, things were looking bad for Jarno Widar. A shock start for the Belgian Lotto-Dstny Devo. And luckily he liked the rain. The downhill start in the pouring rain did perhaps more damage than the entire Tour of the Aosta Valley. After six minutes of racing, riders were everywhere. And Widar was left behind. He even started without a rain jacket, so much so that for a stretch he was wearing another team's.
Fear Widar
With a downhill start in the wet, anything can happen. A quarter of an hour can be lost in a flash. Golliker and Alpecin Deceuninck are raising hell. Whoever is behind them pays the price. It's also going down. Ludovico CrescioliRojas is ahead. Dostyev is unknown. The chaos.
After half an hour of racing, Thanks to Kamiel Eeman and Saint Pantaleon, things are back on track. Eeman, Widar's teammate, stops to wait for him and then begins to hammer away like a blacksmith for his captain. This contribution is a godsend: even if the gap doesn't narrow, it stops spreading. Kamiel will give so much that he will finish outside the time limit.
The Belgian elf did the rest on the climb. He closed in on the leaders and effectively ended his pursuit there, and his Valle d'Aosta was now secure.
«True – says Widar – a difficult start in which everything was falling apart. The guy in front of me fell. I was a meter away from him and I thought, "Damn, what now?" A lot of guys didn't care about this start and didn't shoot. So I found myself 20 seconds behind. I was so angry with myself, everyone was falling in a group and I was behind. I would never have been able to get back to my teammate who was waiting for me. Kamiel did a really good job of keeping the group close. Then I came back and everything went well."
Torres, what timing!
And right while Widar is returning, here comes Pablo Torres, another terrible 2005. His timing is exceptional. He doesn't give the only rider capable of breaking away from him a chance to catch his wheel, tired as he was from the long run.
The Spanish of UAE Emirates Gen Z it immediately creates a vacuum. We waited for it throughout the “Petit Tour” and finally it arrived.Perhaps he did it also thanks to the advice of those who told him to stay on Widar's wheel. To think about saving energy and taking advantage of the fact that he was far away in the standings. With the exception of Widar's wheels (who was behind), the Spaniard did everything to the letter.
At the finish line he gathers his head in his hands, he can hardly believe it: «I didn't start the Giro della Valle d'Aosta in the best way – he says – but I've always tried to do the best I could for the general. I finished well and for that I'm super happy.
"I actually had to attack on the last climb; we needed to see what the pace was. But if the pace hadn't been too fast, I could have attacked on the previous climb. And since I felt I had good legs, I decided to start there, far away."
In the finale, Torres, who had always pushed a high gear, gave up a bit, but the climb effectively ended two kilometers from the finish.
«I didn't think I was the first, I didn't believe it but I was happy. I knew that the first pursuers were more or less 2 minutes behind me, I asked the bikes, and consequently I also adjusted my pace to theirs. Only at the end I was a little less, but by then the finish line was close."
With that shirt Pablo Torres was closely watched by the Aosta public, on the other hand it is the same as Tadej Pogacar. "To get there, with Pogacar, requires a lot of work. In the WorldTour, I'm at a very high level. What would I say to Tadej? That he's a very strong rider, that he gives me so much motivation, and that one day I'd like to be like him or get as close as possible."
High-level podium
On the podium, alongside Widar, were Kazakh Ilkhan Dostiyev, who attacked Ludovico Crescioli, who dropped away. But in turn Ludovico has detached Vicente Rojas, shipwrecked towards Cervinia.
"After catching up with the best," Widar continued, "I felt calm. I don't blame them for attacking me; it's part of racing. I even thought about winning the stage at one point, but by then Torres had almost a 3-minute lead, so it was over. At that point I just controlled at an easy pace, climbing with Dostiyev."
So it was the weather that called the shots Widar, now known to everyone as the Pogacar of the Aosta Valley. Jarno almost struggles to talk about it from a technical standpoint and the comparisons. He knows it's a significant comparison. But he's also ambitious and doesn't deny wanting to do very well one day. He's more forthcoming when we ask him who his favorite champion is.
«My favorites are pogacar e Van der Poel. They know how to put on a show, they attack from afar and are determined in the race. They're not afraid to expose themselves. I've only ever cycled since I was a child. Cycling is, and has been, my only sport. I grew up watching them." And maybe we understand why he pulls so much!
And now Avenir
The Giro della Valle d'Aosta once again gave us a high-level race, as mentioned. Almost all the protagonists we have seen in these five days will be the same ones we will see in France, at the Avenir (August 18-24). Crescioli wants to do well, Torres too, and obviously Widar too, who, just like Pogacar, could score a historic double. Meanwhile, he has already bagged the Giro Next and Valle d'Aosta double. The last to do so was Sivakov, that today we see where it is.
«Now I'll take a little rest – concludes Widar – then I will go to France to reconnoitre the stages of the Avenir and then some more training at home, where I will try to improve my condition a little more."
Jarno, Flemish, lives in Wellen, eastern Belgium, near the border between Flanders and Wallonia. «When I have to do five hours and climb hills I go to Wallonia, otherwise if I have to do two easy hours I'll stay in the Flanders plain. The big climbs? I do them during the winter training camps when I go to Spain."
