LIEGE (Belgium) – Last week we were scattered in every corner of Europe, which fills us with pride. Alberto Fossati, just back from a trip to Spain with Ridley, is the one who had the best weather experience. Simone Carpanini and Gabriele Bonetti were at Tour of the Alps and they got their share of snow and rain. Stefano Masi At the Eroica Juniores, a stage was cancelled due to hail. Finally, I spent a week in Belgium in winter, between Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. While waiting to return to Italy, it was therefore natural to do so. a reflection on the different treatment that adverse weather conditions had in the three races in question.
Eroica Juniores stage cancelled
In Tuscany, you want a half-strike (all to be understood) of the riders and you want some imprecise indications, the Jury decided to cancel the third stage, given the presence of hail on the road, which made the final descent to Montevarchi impassable. Could they pass? The decision was made and the ball was in the center: won the interest of the ridersIf you haven't already, you can read the whole thing in the article by Stefano Masi.
"Probably," said race director Paolo Maraffon, "the finish could have been at the top of Monte Luco. Except that at Levane, where the actual neutralization took place, the riders went straight to the cars.". So in the end the decision was not to restart, the boys practically went on strike. For goodness sake, it was all legitimate, especially since I had four kids in the car and they were all shivering from the cold. Two of us had to carry one of them by the arms."
Tour of the Alps, bearable cold
Al Tour of the Alps, the riders got cold, but evidently there were no conditions to apply the protocol on adverse weather conditions.
«We encountered snow while driving over the Brenner Pass to return to Italy – explains Simone Carpanini – but never on the race. The only stage that was a bit on the limit was the third one, the one in Schwaz., in which Ganna went on the run and which in the end Lopez won over PellizzariIt was a 124-kilometer stage, and it was cold, but mostly because the riders weren't expecting it in April. Some went on a run to warm up, but nothing too extreme.I remember that in the following days I spoke about it with Pellizzari, I think, and he told me that they had been lucky not to have had the same conditions as the Flèche Wallonne. The images of Skjelmose half-frozen made a deep impression on them."
The Fleche Wallonne case
Yes, what happened to the Vallone ArrowThe weather forecast, which is never wrong these days, said that a sort of ice storm would hit Huy around lunchtime. For this reason, Roberto Damiani, who represented the sports groups, proposed to the Jury to evaluate the reduction of one lapI arrived on the third Mur d'Huy, instead of the fourth. The answer was: "Let's see," and it didn't bode well. As often happens, Staf Scheirlinckx, representative of the CPA, said nothing, however. for Belgium.
When at lunchtime The race was hit by snow mixed with hail, with temperatures of two degrees, but no sign came from the Jury's cars.The final result: those who had wrapped up at the start, sweating like they were in a sauna for the first two hours of the race, managed to finish the race. The others suffered a cold they will never forget and which affected the rest of their week. In any case, The Freccia finished with 44 riders at the finish, 129 retired and 2 who did not start.
After arrival, the revenge of some team managers and sporting directors has fallen on their representative: Roberto DamianiHe stated that he had reported the matter in time and had even offered a way out. Cancelling a lap in Huy would not have distorted the race: «But it had to be done immediately – says Damiani – before Kragh Andersen went on the run».
Different interlocutors
Some people wrote on social media that if riders are complaining about these conditions, perhaps they're in the wrong profession. Others pointed out that When Hinault won the Liège in 1980, only 21 of the 174 riders who started finished the race..
Anything can be said and done. "There is no good or bad weather," said Baden Powell, founder of the Scouts, as a good soldier, "only good or bad equipment." At Freccia some people got the wrong materials and others didn't, but there were all the conditions to reduce the test. At the 2020 Giro they reduced one stage just because it was raining heavily and it wasn't even cold. You can make all the assumptions you want and apply your own beliefs and often frustrations to the lives of others.
What however emerges from these three cases (perhaps two, considering that Tour of the Alps extreme conditions have not been reached) is that the real difference is made by the power of the organizerWhy does one Jury feel it has the right to stop a junior race organized by Giancarlo Brocci, while another looks the other way when it has the Tour de France ahead of it?
Next year, going to the start of the Flèche Wallonne, we would all have remembered the wisdom of the judges and celebrated a winner worthy of the event nonethelessAt the top of the Mur d'Huy, whether it was 197 or 168 kilometers (the distance with one less lap), a great rider would still have won.
