TOUR OF ITALY | 12/05/2024 | 08:16
by Francesca Monzone
Luke Plapp’s prophecy came true and yesterday at the end of the stage arriving in Prati di Tivo, the young Cian Uijtdebroeks is back wearing white with the jersey of the best young player.
The Visma-Lease a Bike rider laughed yesterday morning, when my colleague Plapp, without delaying much, predicted the return of the white jersey on the Belgian’s shoulders.
«You never know something for sure until it has come true – said Uijtdebroeks smiling in Prati di Tivo -: Luke had come to me before the start to tell me that this climb would be really hard for him and that he would give me back my White shirt”.
Yesterday, however, the Belgian’s objective was not the youth classification, but the final stage and trying to stay with the group of the best, responding in a timely manner to a possible attack by Pogacar.
«At the end I was only thinking about getting to the finish line in the best possible way. But it’s nice to be able to have this shirt back.”
They went Thymen Arensman and Antonio Tiberi also did well in Prati di Tivo and they are the ones who could take the white jersey away from Cian Uijtdebroeks. In the ranking for the best youngster, the Belgian has 21 seconds ahead of Tiberi and 1’28” over Arensman.
The Italian from Bahrain-Victorious also attacked a few times on the final climb, but Pogacar always managed to close in and prevent a possible action from becoming dangerous. «I knew that Tiberi would try to do something. He is someone who likes to attack. But his attempts did not lead to decisive action. I knew it wouldn’t be the best day to attack and make an assault on the white jersey because the general classification was at stake.”
The climb to Prati di Tivo was very long and came after the challenging time trial in Perugia and many riders had not fully recovered, so an attack could have been foreseeable. «It was a very fast climb, Ineos still had two riders and UAE Emirates still had Majka. I knew that the victory would be decided with a sprint.”
Today there will be the stage arriving in Naples and then the rest day will arrive. The second week of racing will open with the Pompeii stage, characterized by an uphill finish and then after the stage with the Marche walls on Thursday, on Saturday it will be the turn of the Desenzano del Garda time trial and on Sunday, with the arrival in Livigno the real mountains will arrive. «My goal always remains the same: to reach the highest position in the general classification. I can’t wait for the rest day to recover and then start again with the second week.”
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