NAPLES – First rest day. While the riders recharge their batteries after a Giro that has so far provided no shortage of effort and excitement, we take a step back and return on the day of Fossano. We are returning to a topic that could rightly be considered outdated and which instead continues to agitate our readers with astonishing numbers.That day we brought back Facebook and Social media coordinator a consideration by Paolo Bettini regarding the conduct of Pogacar, already in the pink jersey, who, following Honoré's attack, tried to anticipate the sprinters.
Well, both in the early hours and even now, that topic and that post continue to stir opinions. For those who know about it, the 3.205 “likes”, the 149 shares and 1.395 (for now) comments on Facebook are the sign of a topic that still interests and dividesOn Instagram, where major discussions rarely start, the numbers speak of 1.198 likes and 66 comments. These figures are still evolving, surprisingly so, if you like.
Bettini's words
Bettini, for those who don't know, He was an Olympic champion, he won two world championships, two Liege championships, two Lombardy championships and the Sanremo championship. A career of 62 victories, to which are added four years as national team coach. He is a credible, competent character who deserves respect.But Pogacar's supporters forcefully lined up before him, their tone quickly becoming heated. What had Paolo said?
"In my opinion, these are actions he shouldn't do," Fossano said afterward. "I didn't like them. Not because of the athleticism—hats off, we know he's a phenomenon—but be careful because the Giro is long. In a stage like this, He should have let his opponents play, stayed back and not exposed himself because actions like these make you unpopularYou're already strong and you're already winning everything, do you also want to do a sprinter's stage by doing something like this? Be careful, because if the day comes that they find him in difficulty and the group starts to roll, they'll give him a good beating and sometimes it's more difficult to manage a fast stage than a mountain stage (...) I'm not talking about fair play, this is about the race."
The leader's style
Bettini's speech is not of a mafia nature, as some have thundered, but it recalls an unwritten code of the group that is evidently no longer so current. Somehow Bugno also underlined it this morning, albeit with different tones. If Pogacar in the pink jersey sweeps everything up for grabs, Gianni wondered, how will he maintain good relationships within the group?
The fact that Bugno also spoke after Bettini makes it clear that the generational change that exploded in 2020 involves the fans and probably also the flagships and the reactions of the group.
Never before have we seen champions like Indurain, Contador, Nibali, Bernal, Froome, Pantani, Dumoulin, Roglic, Vingegaard, Quintana and even Armstrong, who was no slouch when it came to greed, sprint for intermediate sprints. It has always been thought that if a leader does this, it means that he doesn't feel confident about the results he will be able to achieve.In the last two Tours, Pogacar rode in this same way, but in the end it paid off in the head-to-head with Vingegaard. Here at the Giro so far he has left nothing to anyone and this, applying the canons of tradition and in the absence of a truly fearsome opponent, sounds unusual.
Ten years ago what Bettini said would have been disarmingly obvious, in a cycling where toughness and unwritten etiquette were key. The strongest leader always shared the cake with the rest of the group. And even if in the end, in addition to the pink jersey, he won the mountains and points jerseys, he did so with the results of the decisive stages. In between, there were 10-12 days when the stage was also for others, to the delight of their sponsors..
Pogacar's right
On the other hand he is right Roberto Damiani, when he defends their freedom to win as and when they please. He also recognizes the inability to make peace with their own aspirations in those who always demand everything and its opposite.
«Pogacar is a champion – he says – someone who, when he smells the scent of victory, goes looking for it, it's a good thing that it's like thatFor years we've been hammering those calculating champions who only competed in the Giro or the Tour, and now we're picking on this guy who wins the classics and then comes to win the Giro? Hats off to him. Honestly, I don't know him, I've probably said hello to him three times, but hats off to him.
Cycling is changing
Asked in the following days to comment on the reactions to his words, Bettini added that he had received messages and audio from some sports directors from the team car, annoyed by the way this Giro is going and ready to trip up the pink jersey if the opportunity arises.
In recent days you read about a nervous Pogacar, someone even jokedAmong the flagships there is whispering and trying to understand, among journalists it is the same. It is said that this is due to the fact that the Slovenian is not enjoying dominating far and wide, but that this is being imposed on him by teamThese are rumors: they're meaningless, but they could explain the rarer smiles and the less openness of the pink jersey to fans and the press. It can't be easy to be looked at with annoyance and to push forward a position you barely agree with. On the contrary, how annoying it would be. having to justify and almost apologize for exercising one's right to win?
That said, are there really technicians on the flagships with the "hair" to implement the threatened tactics? Cycling isn't like that anymore, we will evaluate later whether to add the adverb unfortunately or fortunately. We are faced with a sport that is deciphered through numbers and repeatable formulas. Who has made science and less and less tactics his starting point. But the stomach ache is always the same and It reminds us of the atmosphere at the 1999 Giro, when it was thought that Pantani was exaggerating.Marco also found himself the target of complaints from his colleagues and the strong stance of some teams against him. Was it the team that pushed him there too?
If it were tricolour…
It's a shame that the Giro plan failed. bring Evenepoel to the start as well. The presence of a very strong rival would have made the gap between the pink jersey and the rest of the group less evident. Certainly, taking into account these dynamics and not having yet faced the truly difficult days of the Giro, the race seems anything but boring.
Tadej is from another planetThe push given yesterday in the last kilometer by the pink jersey shows that he has overflowing strength and perhaps even for the best Vingegaard this year it would be hard to keep him at bayAnd just as we're certain of this, another awareness dawns on us as we think about this Giro and the fact that it risks losing interest: If Pogacar were Italian, there would be complaints certainly less.
