«It was needed, yes, absolutely – says Trentin all in one breath – it was really needed. I'm happy. I went really fast!
The airport is a mess, the queue for baggage check-in is slow and Meanwhile, Matteo tells the story of the victoryLet's tease him a little: do you remember how we said goodbye in Kuurne??
He thinks about it and doesn't remember. He was leaning against the barrier after ninth place behind Jakobsen and laughing at the Chinese press secretary of theUAE Team Emirates, he had said: «I'm not coming back tonight, I won Le Samyn, because Zhao doesn't want to go home." The other had laughed, but now that Le Samyn has really won that sentence brings a smile.
«Actually – he sneers – I meant to say that They made me stay up unscheduled, but I'm fine with that too».
Journalists and flights
It had been circling around for a while. Just as the 2021 Matteotti Trophy had come after a two-year drought, Yesterday's victory at the finish line in Dour interrupts a cursed series of placings and sprints lost by a hair. Matteo is in good spirits.
"This thing about sprints," he says, "was something you journalists brought up on me."
“We helped you focus on it,” we reply, “so now that you’ve overcome it, you have to buy us drinks».
Interesting read—a moment of silence, a laugh—but still, I'm absolutely delighted. I really did a great job. We made the race tough right from the start, because after Kuurne nobody wanted to take Jakobsen in the sprintAt Matteotti I was happy because it was almost a relief, here I'm happy because I'll be able to arrive at the next commitments relaxed."
Jakobsen? No, thanks.
The Dutch of Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl he arrived in the group 4 seconds behind the Trentino and He gave up on the sprint, as ninth place was at stake. Looking closely, Trentin had tried the same action right in Kuurne, but he found himself in bad company with people not inclined to shoot and the group behind him was wide open in pursuit.
«Cobblestones and narrow streets – he says – it wasn't so much a question of walls. We started off strong, but no one was leaving. But when we really accelerated, the rear ones fell apart.I don't know who was pulling in the group, maybe Quick Step, because there were two in front and they never collaboratedWhen we started, there were 25 of us in the breakaway group, then little by little they started to drop away and In the end, eight of us arrived with a 4 second advantage».
Destination Sanremo
The future is a hypothesis, sings Enrico Ruggeri, and it's best that it remains so. Matteo has been at home since last night, but when he left he complained that the snack vending machine was out of order and that he would have arrived in Munich so late that he would have missed dinner.
«No big deal – he admits – now a bit of rest, then the Paris-Nice and the SanremoI'm not even going to talk about it out of superstition. I always get thereLast year, we just missed out on a twelfth-place finish. I'll think about that again after Paris-Nice. My only regret with this victory is not having had time to celebrate with the team. They had the longest awards ceremony in the world and when I got back to the bus, some had already left."
The awards ceremony did indeed drag on for quite a while. Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke—former professional, sports director, television commentator, race organizer, and uncle of the unforgettable Frank—posed with him astride a large touring bike (opening photo).
A farewell much milder than that of Kuurne, when resignation had taken over his proverbial spiritThe Sanremo is a constant presence in the dreams of every Italian rider and in the training of every Monaco resident, but To achieve this, all the pieces will need to fall into place. To find out how it will end, we just have to wait the next three weeks.
