Victory at Gran Sasso by Davide Bais, Giro’s Desperate Escape Specialist | sports

They are six hours away from crossing through the desolate wilderness of Abruzzo that only the severely crippled can endure without gestures. They melt the imagination and desire of the fans, who can carelessly think about the battle that does not come – Gran Sasso plateau, a large false flat road, a treeless anchorage, and a great final slope, three kilometers by 13%, which is also a stage, a Tatar desert Movie– , but they challenge the imagination of the commentators, who first define it as a war of attrition – 218 kilometers with an average of 35, a zero-meter journey for three young boys that quickly reaches 12 minutes, a group of favorites who do not lose weight, not even an ass The great, heavy rollers hang though the harbors, the mountains, the hail, the cliffs of the Big Horn, the summit, with its white streaks, and a last road open between the walls of ice–and as the gorges advance and despair and incomprehension grow, they successively become a phase of waiting, a phase of patience, a phase of Apathy, contempt phase, fear phase.

For hopeless escape specialist Davide Bais, it’s the big day. The triumph of intelligence. Rovereto cyclist with Trento accompanied by Simone Betelli and Karel Vasek, two like him who have not won anything in their lives and do not even believe that they can fight for a great stage victory of the Giro, over 2000 meters, where the name of Marco Pantani is carved on all the walls. Vacek, a Czech already talking about the past at the age of 22, about his younger days winning races against Remco Evenepoel and all, satisfied to note on his tongue the taste of adrenaline in combat, Simone Petilli, the best climber of the three, lets himself be carried away by the road Desire, wasted, attacked, stopped, dried up. Paes, who goes out on an adventure every day, often at the hands of his older brother, Mattia, his mentor, who won last year’s Grand Prix, 617 kilometers in the entire Giro, sticks to the wheel and waits. When the time is right, win. Victory justifies every empty day.

For world champion Remco Evenepoel, Gran Sasso is a 300-meter sprint, a hill sprint for fourth, and Roglic for fifth. For the Giro, another day. The strongest cyclist never tests anyone. Nobody tests it. does not want. Attacking means putting on pink again, a color that still suits Andreas Lekenesund, lover of the Arctic Circle, from Tromsø, above Norway, where Hurtigruten makes one of the first pit stops, and his team, DSM, who, loyal, takes the lead throughout the stage, swallowing the wind, and wipes himself out so everyone can feel comfortable at the wheel. On Sunday, Evenepoel has a very flat 35km time trial to get back to the top, they talk about two more minutes of the feature, and from there, work the Control Turn.

Others say the wise with the wisdom of fear. They are afraid to attack, lest Evenpoel fight back. are waiting. Roglic, Tao, Almeida, talking about the third week. And above that the wind blows from the face, not even the merino sheep graze in the upland meadows. There is no great novel, not even the best, without chapters that make you want to stop reading it. There is no Giro without days like this.

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