«With my glasses – Puccio seems to tell him in the opening photo, after the stage that seemed like a Liège – you get superpowers, maybe I should make you pay for them."
I'll keep them for another day, Ganna thinks instead, looking at the race book: today there is the time trialAnd if he doesn't think about it, he surely will have done it. Matteo Tosatto, who leads the Team Ineos Grenadiers atEtoile de Besseges and his hand is seenCoincidences don't exist, just reread the team's recent history, from the Giro onwards. Just read Tosatto's words and then those of MosconAnd just listen to Ganna…
Rousson is almost ready to leave. Ganna has Puccio's white glasses: will he break away? Nibali is getting better and better. His recent performances are boosting his morale. Bora-Hansgrohe faces a tough time: Valach just learned that Sagan tested positive for Covid.
Rousson is almost ready to go. Ganna smiles: will he break away? Nibali is getting better and better. His recent performances are boosting his morale. Bora-Hansgrohe faces a tough time: Sagan tests positive for COVID-19.
«The goal was to stay close to Kwiatkowski and help him – said Pippo – but we saw that there was a chance to break away And Kwiato said, 'Okay, no problem.' I kept my motivation to get to the finish line, and in the last 10 kilometers I preferred to go alone so as not to have to respond to all those attacks. At the finish line, I was really happy."
White glasses
It was enough to look at his face. In reality it would have been enough to look at his face in the morning, with a sly grin behind the white glasses stolen from his friend Puccio. He had also used them at the Giro in the stages where it was difficult., from the Cancano Lakes to Sestriere, as if looking at the world through the eyes of the strongest domestique would make even the effort less uncomfortable. On that route, like a small Liège, they would have been useful.
Nibali grows
The starting lineup in Rousson had different hues. The dull one of Bora-Hansgrohe which had just received the news that Sagan tested positive for Covid. And that of a timid optimism at Trek-Segafredo, with Nibali growing day by day.
"Yesterday's stage," he said as he approached the start, "was ideal for a breakaway. I made a couple of attacks to draw the breakaway, even though we ultimately failed. It's the first race of the season, there's always the doubt of how you'll be able to feel, but so far my condition is good and I feel like I'm getting stronger day by day."
The Toso's touch
The stage that would lead to Saint Siffret it was a small Liege, without even a meter of plainAnd when an expert technician like Tosatto sees similar altimetries, having certainly encountered many in his life, he knows that the best thing is to let others workBesides, Kwiatkowski had nothing to defend except fourth place in the standings, 48 seconds behind Wellens. So rather than keep the team around him, if anyone had the chance to leave, they would have gladly left the task of pulling to others.
Strange timeline
Today, with the time trial with the strange uphill finish, the game will be differentKwiato, if he has the will, will be able to fight to win and close the gap on Wellens. While Ganna will be able to test his skills As a time trialist, his friendship with climbing is certainly not new. Those who followed him in the early years had already noticed certain details.
"In the standings I'm almost 3 minutes behind," he said, "that's good. The stage was great, we'll see if I can get closer to the leaders with the time trial and if in the future the classification could be an objective, perhaps in a race with fewer climbs. For now I want to finish well here."
The final time trial starts and arrives in Ales, with a city routeIt's 10,7 kilometers with an uphill finish: the last 2,5 kilometers are steep. The elevation gain is 236 meters, with the toughest section between the 9th and 10th kilometers.
