KARPACZ – “Now I know how Pogacar feels… and how bad it is for others!” Matej Mohoric He gives us this gem while waiting to go on stage. "It's nice to run like this... because my legs don't hurt like they usually do.
«My leg felt great today. It almost didn't feel like my own! I was fine. Really fine. I came out of the hospital in good condition. Tour And already on Wednesday in training I had incredible feelings. I couldn't wait to race."
The desire to run. The pleasure of competing. There is all this in the victory of Matej Mohoric and his team in this second leg of the Tour of Poland, race yesterday from Lesno to Karpacz. The rider of Bahrain-Victorious He really enjoyed himself and so did his classmates.
Fun Bahrain
Damian Caruso He's the first to reach it after the finish line on the verdant slopes of the Carpathians. The ritual embrace, and between one smile and another, the two immediately start talking. "I told you," Damiano explains, "that you should have waited. Get in the back... Come on, we'll talk about it later."
Then the Sicilian turns to us: «True, we had fun. But when you win it's always fun. He had great legs because he came out of the Tour well. I came down the mountain and it was right that he should lead the race."
At the start they were both next to each other Andrea Pasqualon. We'd joked with him: "They say there are some really strong guys in this trio." And Damiano, turning to the other two, had immediately replied: "What did he say?" "That we're going strong," Mohoric clarified, "but we'll see at the finish."
“Race passion”
Getting serious, Mohoric really enjoyed himself. The Slovenian loves running. If he's fit, it's clearly even better. On the eve of Poland we pressed him: "Matej, are you going to stop after this?" And he, on the other hand, was against everything. he had reeled off a long racing programme, even without the Vuelta.
"I like racing. It's not the first time I've done this. We'd been planning it since this winter. I won't do the Vuelta, but I will do other races, including the ones in Canada."
Many races, however, are not easy to manage, especially these days with the frenetic pace. Even today's stage saw the final two hours tackled at a breakneck pace.
«True – Mohoric clarifies – it's not easy but now I'm quite calm in the race, I waste less energy. I know what I have to do, the team supports us to the maximum, It gives us everything we need and we just have to pedal."
Matej and the general
And he also showed this clarity as he climbed towards Karpacz. The story of his final climb is the portrait of clarity. When Matej set off, he had Almeida at his wheel, who is a real "dog" on certain arrivals.
"The finale," he says, "was technical, tough, and fast. In some places it was dark (which Caruso also said, ed.). Damiano did a great job. He told me to follow him because I was pushing too hard. Then, in the finale, when I was in front, I started wondering, “When are the others coming?” No one was coming. At that point, fearing that someone would arrive, I took the last bend very tightly and pushed a little more."
It's fair to even consider the Slovenian's overall victory, especially if he has this mental freshness and these legs.
"Eh," he laughs, "yes, I think about it, but it's not easy with the final time trial. I'm not bad against the clock, but I'm not like"Kwiato"The Almeida». Then with a mischievous smile, just as he is about to climb onto the podium to wear the leader's jersey, he adds: «If anything, I'll attack tomorrow on the descent!». And it wouldn't be the first time: the Poggio teaches!
A little bit of Italy
But before closing this story, they deserve a round of applause. Jacopo Fly e Lorenzo Milesi. The two Italians were the protagonists of the day's breakaway.
«Just think – says Mosca – I saw Lorenzo in the morning at the start. He told me he wanted to go on the run. So I said, “I'm coming too!” I wanted to go too... All things considered, we don't have a super leader here. It's one of the few races where we can all have some space, and aiming for the GPM jersey was a goal of mine. I don't know if I've got it yet, maybe they'll give it to me out of goodwill!
In the end, due to positioning issues in the general classification, he took the jersey Lucas Hamilton, but the two are on par.
«With Lorenzo – continues the athlete of the Lidl Trek – we always went at the same speed. The computer always showed 43-43,5 kilometers per hour. It dropped off a bit when we hit a headwind, but we were still going at 42 knots. The group left us 10 minutes behind. Then they started pulling really hard… Oh well. At that point we thought we'd at least get to the GPM."
