Let’s take a little trip back in time, almost three years ago. Let’s go back to May 22, 2021, at fourteenth stage of the Giro d’Italia. From Cittadella to Monte Zoncolan, one of the most anticipated arrivals of that edition of the Corsa Rosa. We expected a fight between the best in the rankings for such an important goal, but instead the winner was one of the attackers of the day, a small and light climber who was flying that day, so much so that he moved his boss Alberto Contador: in that day Italy discovered Lorenzo Fortunato.
With his first victory as a professional at the age of twenty-five, that arrival with arms raised and the final sixteenth place in that general classification seemed like it could be the springboard for a very good career. But instead, ato this day, the boy from Emilia has practically remained there, without managing to take a specific step forward and become a true Grand Tours man.
Fifteenth in 2022, even twenty-first last year, obtaining only a few sporadic placings and rarely keeping the wheels of those who are really competing for prominent positions in the rankings. Plus a less-than-extraordinary leg when he counted there were also major problems in the time trial, exacerbated by his physical structure (170 centimeters and 57 kilos), which gave him a disadvantageous position in the rankings of the major stage races.
In the meantime, however, the call arrived from a World Tour, the Astana-Qazaqstan which should not ask him to compulsorily rank, but to unleash his horses uphill. The results arrived in preparation, one fourteenth place at the Tirreno-Adriatico and above all tenth place at the Volta a Catalunya, but with just a two minute margin behind Egan Bernal’s third place, they still give us hope.
The realistic objective for Lorenzo Fortunato remains the same: finishing in the top 15 in Rome and perhaps taking a stage success starting from afar, taking advantage of the fact of not being too close in the standings. But the stars can also align, finding the right time trial leg and a team that works for him, allowing him to eye a place in the top 10 of this Giro d’Italia. Difficult yes, impossible no, especially if he hasn’t already reached peak form, which last year led him to excellent results in April with fifth place in the Tour of the Alps and victory in the Vuelta Asturias.
