OROPA – While everyone runs downwards, Enrico Gasparotto walks upwards. The technician of Bora-Hansgrohe the traffic of flagships and cyclists rises. As soon as his Florian Lipowitz he stops him, puts his hands around his cheeks almost like a dad. A few pats on his shoulder and he starts talking to us.
He starts talking to us but stops a few seconds later. Almost in a hurry, he turns and goes to the flagship. The runner trembles. Maybe he tells him that he is still cold. He makes him undress, gives him a dry shirt even heavier than the one the masseur had previously given him. The two start talking again. Then Lipowitz, smiling, sets off on his bike to go down to Biella.
Smile rediscovered
«I tried to follow him – the German replied to those who asked him about his climb – but Pogacar was significantly faster. For my part, I’m happy, I felt good during the climb. Go on like this».
«I came to meet Florian – explains Gasparotto – because yesterday he had a bad day, but we know he’s fine given what he did at Romandia. And he did a great job today too. He’s a young guy, having his first experience at Tour of Italy and we felt bad about yesterday. He hoped to remain at the front with the best. Therefore he was a little down, I won’t say demoralized, but he was starting to have doubts about his condition, which perhaps had already disappeared compared to Romandie. Let’s see how it goes day by day. Both he and we must discover his potential.”
In short, Gaspa consoled his athlete. A sports director is, and must be, also a psychologist.
In this first uphill finish of the Giro d’Italia, Tadej Pogacar dominated, as expected, but to date it is clear that the second force of the pink race is Bora-Hansgrohe. Gaspa has two up front. Lipowitz, in fact, and Daniel Martinez.
Martinez is there
Gasparotto goes against the grain again. This time his goal is Daniel Martinez. He finds it while doing cool-down rollers. It’s in the anti-doping area. The Colombian was called for control. This time the look is less “father-like”, Martinez is also more mature and knows what he’s doing. But Gaspa listens and speaks with the same attention.
«With Daniel – Gasparotto continues – suddenly there was some nervousness, because right at the hardest point of the climb, between minus 5 and minus 4, he had a problem with his bike. She wanted to replace it, but we were behind with the flagship and the jury didn’t let us pass. We couldn’t do anything except leave Lipowitz near him.”
«I believe that being able to stay up front and sprint for second place means that the legs are there. With Dani then we had to be a little conservative because he hasn’t raced for a long time since Tirreno. Therefore in these situations we always try not to overdo it at the beginning. And if on a day in which we had to be conservative Dani takes second I think it’s fine.”
Possible surprises
The Swiss-Friulian director complains a little about the fact that his athlete was not able to express himself to the maximum, but also underlines how sprinting for a second place means a lot. Martinez, and we wrote it in unsuspecting times, he’s betting hard on the Giro. It’s the goal of the season.
So objective that he and Gaspa had viewed several stages of this pink race. The Bora-Hansgrohe sporting director is no stranger to dramatic flair and having two in front of him is tantalizing. Can we invent something?
«Well, tomorrow is a stage for sprinters – Gasparotto glides and smiles – and we will aim for it with Van Poppel. Why not: you can try to do something. The road is still long, very long. There are critical stages and also interesting, eventful stages. The important thing, however, is that the boys are well… as they demonstrated today.”
