Ezio never left you without a coffee, so much so that sometimes you said no so as not to give the impression of taking advantage of it. The bus of UAE Team Emirates, like those of other friendly drivers, has always been the safe haven for Italian journalists in races across Europe. And when you stop to listen to their drivers' stories, you understand how much care goes into that coffee and the gesture of offering it. Ezio this year he decided to skip a shift, even though he would like to return for the Giro. He had to undergo two check-ups and now that he is well, he would immediately take the wheel again. Therefore, hoping on the one hand that it can be given back to him, we want to tell you about it for the fantastic 2020 he experienced with Pogacar at the Tour and from there backwards wherever the imagination wanted to go.
«Ours is an important role – says Ezio speaking about the drivers – because there are many situations to manageAfter the race, if it didn't go well. The morning before the more complicated starts. We need to leave the athletes alone, so they can do their thing. If there were any problems, there are issues to deal with. And then for the rest, you need to know everything about departures, arrivals, hotels, schedules..."
Ezio Bozzolo, born in Ceva, Piedmont, in 1982, was the most experienced driver on Gianetti and Matxin's team until the final stage of the Giro. And to add a bit of suspense, a week after the end of the Tour (won by Pogacar over his compatriot Roglic), he was… loaned to the Slovenian national team for the World Cup in ImolaWith Pogacar looking like a happy child, having his partner in the women's national team, while Roglic spent every drop of free time with his family. But Ezio's story begins well before.
When did you start?
I stopped running as a junior due to fairly poor results. But cycling was and remained my life, so when Osvaldo Bettoni (historical driver of the Shimano bus, ed.) asked me to give him a hand in the mountain bike races, I got my license and started following himFrom there, thanks to Fabrizio Bontempi and Della Torre, sports director and masseur of the then Lampre, I started doing a few days and everything started moving.
Have you ever realized, Ezio, that you have been a direct witness to historic moments in this sport, like Fausto Pezzi experienced Pantani's great days in his camper?
I realize that now that I'm out of it. When you have the team jersey and the bus keys, you are part of the story and you have no perception of the extraordinary natureI experienced the World Championships in Varese and also the last Tour, for example, but when you're in the vortex you can't enjoy it.
Let's go to the Tour, penultimate stage at the Planche des Belles Filles. What do you remember?
We were parked downstairs, you couldn't go up there except with vans. Throughout the Tour I continued to be amazed at how little stress there was. It was really nice because there was the awareness that we could do wellAt the start in Nice, we didn't expect to win, but we were all fired up. The best in every role were there. Even among us in the staff, we were all close-knit. E Pogacar was perfect in the middle..
In what sense?
In the sense that his gift is serenity. That day is got off the bus to warm up with his music at full blast. Below, in the mechanics' space in front of the bus, there were Vasile and Bosio, who they were riding a beautiful white bicycle, which Colnago had made for him. But it was really beautiful. He gets off, looks at them and says: "Why white? Don't you have the yellow one?"He didn't say it as a joke, so much so that the two stopped.
That's the beauty of having nothing to lose...
On the day of the fans, he reached the bus and got on the rollers. He had lost ground. He threw down two curses and started pedaling. Maybe the turning point was precisely that one.
We remember moments of silence on that bus also due to Aru's seizures...
We were all involved. Fabio is a very good and kind boy. It's just that sometimes something snaps in him and he freezes. You can't even say he's a slacker or that he doesn't care, because he always trains so hard. It was impossible for us Italians to live with detachment during his lapses, it was almost a personal thingI remember Marcato standing next to him and trying to cheer him up. And it wasn't so much for this Tour, but for the first Giro. We had very high expectations, damn: it was Fabio AruEverything that happens to athletes is unfortunate, I'm not one of those who talk behind their backs.
What is the relationship between the driver and the bus?
An almost spasmodic attention. In this Pouches and Villa (respectively drivers of Astana and Team Qhubeka-Assos) are masters. The bus is not the team's, it's yoursYou get annoyed if someone breaks something. You get annoyed if something's missing. There's always a lot of banter among us drivers., like between children who challenge each other for certain dimensions…
What are the most beautiful buses?
Those made in Italy by Carminati e Affair They beat the foreigners 10-0. The taste and quality of Made in Italy on those beasts are so high that now even people from outside come to buy them in Italy. And anyway, when the new bus has to be built, 99 percent of the directions are given by the driverBecause maybe you do it without letting it show, but in addition to having the experience of your own, you've also peered into and studied those of others. You take cues and then adopt the best solution.
Buses were decisive in Morbegno's morning...
If we from UAE hadn't been there that day, the buses wouldn't have arrived so quickly. And by then, the riders would have had a long time to wait...
Why?
We had just taken the highway to go towards the finish line and luckily Marzano's call to us arrived before the tunnelsWe stopped practically in the middle of the road, just before the junction, and luckily the others lined up behind us. At that point we quickly turned back.
However, despite the necessary thanks for the many coffees, the bus has become a bit of an impregnable fortress if you want to talk to a rider...
This is something that seems strange to me too, even though the our press officers have always organized appointments for journalists. But if I may, It bothers me to see people standing down there for an hour, without the riders getting off to say hello or take a photo. There are worse things in life and having a public role is part of their job, even if we are working to keep them more and more closedI, with the risk of losing the relationship with the public. When I had Ballan, Petacchi, or Bruseghin, things were different. Maybe because there weren't the fantastic cell phones of today, but those champions liked being among people...
