OROPA – While everyone is running down, Enrico Gasparotto walk upwards. The technician of Bora Hansgrohe the traffic of flagships and cyclists goes up. As soon as his Florian Lipowitz He stops him, puts his hands around his cheeks almost like a father. He pats him on the shoulder and starts talking to him.
He starts talking to us, but a few seconds later he stops. Almost running, he turns and goes to the flagship. The rider is shivering. Perhaps it tells him he's still cold. She makes him undress, hands him a dry shirt even heavier than the one the masseur had given him earlier. The two resume their conversation. Then Lipowitz, smiling, sets off on his bike to go down to Biella.
Smile found again
“I tried to follow him,” the German replied to those who asked him about his climb, “but Pogacar was clearly faster. For my part, I'm happy; I felt good along the climb. Keep going.».
«I came to meet Florian – explains Gasparotto – because He had an off day yesterday, but we know he's fine given what he did at Romandie. And he did a great job today too. He's a young guy, his first experience at the Tour of Italy And he was disappointed about yesterday. He was hoping to stay up front with the best. So he was a bit down, I wouldn't say demoralized, but he was starting to have doubts about his condition, which perhaps had already disappeared compared to Romandie. Let's see how it goes day by day. Both he and we need to discover his potential."
In short, Gaspa consoled his athlete. A sports director is, and must be, also a psychologist.
In this first uphill finish of the Giro d'Italia, Tadej Pogacar dominated, as expected, but today it is clear that the second force in the Giro d'Italia is Bora-Hansgrohe. Gaspa has two up front: Lipowitz, precisely, and Daniel Martinez.
Martinez is there
Gasparotto goes against the grain again. This time his target is Daniel Martinez. She finds him while he's doing the rollers to cool down. He's in the anti-doping area. The Colombian has been called in for a test. This time, his gaze is less "fatherly," Martinez is also more mature and knows his stuff. But Gaspa listens and speaks with the same attention.
«With Daniel – Gasparotto continues – suddenly there was some nervousness, because right at the hardest point of the climb, Between minus 5 and minus 4, he had a problem with his bike. He wanted to replace it, but we were behind in the team car and the judges didn't let us through. We couldn't do anything except leave Lipowitz close to him."
"I think being able to stay up front and sprint for second place means you have the legs. With Dani, we had to be a bit conservative because he hadn't raced since the Tirreno in a long time. So in these situations, you always try not to overdo it at the start. And if on a day when we had to be conservative Dani does second I think it's fine."
Possible surprises
The Swiss-Friulian sports director is a bit disappointed that his athlete wasn't able to perform at his best, but he also emphasizes that sprinting for second place means a lot. Martinez, and we wrote in unsuspected times, He's aiming hard for the Giro. It's his goal for the season.
So objective that he and Gaspa had watched several stages of this Giro d'Italia. The Bora-Hansgrohe sports director is no stranger to dramatic stunts, and having two of them in front of him is tantalizing. Can we come up with something?
"Well, tomorrow is a sprinter's stage," Gasparotto glosses over and smiles, "and we'll bet on Van Poppel. Why not? We can try to do something. The road is still long, very long. There are critical stages and also interesting, eventful stages. The important thing, however, is that the boys are well... as they demonstrated today."
