MONTE PANA – When you understand that Pogacar has put him in his sights, the hopes that Giulio Pellizzari will win the stage are reduced to a minimum. For the logic according to which it is right that the pink jersey wins when it can, we can only take our hats off. But on this day that began badly and ended meteorologically not too much better, the resurrection of the VF Group-Bardiani from the Marche region was the confirmation of a talent that is growing and faces the third week with its head held high and a proud look. The group reached the finish line after a shortened stage due to the snow which blocked the big steps and which after a while also started to fall in Livigno. The decision to leave Valtellina via the La Schera tunnel was the only one to make, without the hesitation that once again dragged the Giro into a dimension it doesn’t deserve. «We are ready – said Pogacar before starting – I don’t know if the organization is too».
Other athletes have written too many words, but it was embarrassing to have to wait for the departure time without any update and then find yourself faced with the proposal to hold a parade through Livigno in the snow. The runners were right to refuse, it wouldn’t have made any sense, other than being grateful to the city administration who also paid for a start that in fact didn’t happen.
A pink shadow
Pellizzari leaves the tent where Pogacar has taken shelter with a pink cape and the Slovenian’s glasses in one hand. He coughs. She bends over the bike next to the barrier. Then when he recognizes her voice, she sits up, smiles and shakes his hand. He wanted to retire, he was about to win. Except that at a certain point he turned and saw Pogacar arriving. What did you think, Giulio, at that moment?
“Bastard! Again?”, then he laughs underline the irony and resignation contained in the word. Something like this had already happened to him in Turin, but if everyone knew what he went through to get here, perhaps for them too this second place would feel like victory.
The right force
The day of rest worked a miracle, crowning a somewhat unexpected recovery. It was thought that it would be better to stop him to avoid that the effort was beyond his means, instead on the day without running in Livigno he completed his ascent.
«Yesterday I was very well – he says while it continues to rain – in fact my fear was that today I wasn’t like yesterday, but I’m happy. I felt like I had the right strength and it’s nice to be able to do that at the start of the third week. Five days ago I was at home more than at the race. I had a cough, cold, sore throat and… I was more over there than over here, but thanks to my family, Massimiliano Gentili, Leonardo Piepoli and my girlfriend Andrea, I stayed and today I didn’t win, but that’s okay».
A second father
If we know it, we think, Massimiliano Gentili will be somewhere alone crying. So after speaking with Pellizzari and before starting to write this article, we plan to call him.
«I’m stopped on the motorway – confirms the Umbrian with his voice still shaking – it’s a day that I will remember forever. I was in Bologna for my daughter’s knee surgery I was feeling the tension for this and for everything we did in recent days with Giulio. He said that he dedicates this stage to me which for me is like a victory and this moves me. I stopped to see it.
«Giulio has been my pride since he was a child, since I stopped running and he has given meaning to the years after my running career. I saw him, I understood him and I promised him that I would take him to where he is now. He is a son that I share with his real father and I can say that getting here hasn’t been easy».
Antibiotics at the Giro
We were right to call him, we think. And with the former Umbrian professional we venture into Pellizzari’s misadventures that risked making him leave the Giro and his explanation is truly enlightening.
«First he had stomach problems – he says – then he must have caught cold after the time trial, because on the way to Naples he started having a cold and a sore throat. In the evening he called me and told me: “I’m empty as a sock”. Then I spoke to Leonardo Piepoli, who coaches him, and we decided to risk antibiotics during the Giro. I told him to hold on, because once he had finished them and then disposed of them, he could have done the Giro we had always dreamed of. He finished them in Francavilla and was devastated. He had seen Uijtdebroeks leave, he wanted to quit. And then I told him not to do it, not to leave the Giro regretting having abandoned it. Not to do like me when I retired without a fight. “You have to come out as the runner you are.”
«Giulio is born for the third week. He is 20 years old, he is still immature for certain rhythms, but he is genetically predisposed for these things. Ours is a film, even if I can’t appear. But I like that you always speak in the plural. And tomorrow I’m sure he will go on the run again and even after. Three mountain stages remain, he won’t let them pass in vain. He had already done well on the Mortirolo and was smart to let himself be picked up, but Today I saw his pedal stroke…».
The shirt and the glasses
The magic of what happened under the tent is immortalized by a wonderful video on Instagram shot by Gabriele Reverberi. Pellizzari entered and saved himself in front of Pogacar. He asked him for the glasses and the pink shirt and Tadej, with a wonderful and amazed smile, handed him the first ones and took off the second one. Then, after Giulio placed his hand on his helmet, the two hugged. If Martinez hadn’t been behind him, maybe Pogacar wouldn’t have accelerated. But all in all the victory, when it comes, will be real and will taste even sweeter.
«Yesterday my brother wrote to me – he says – and told me to find a way to fix Pogacar’s glasses. So I went in and asked him for them and he gave me the shirt too rose. I wish him all the best, he is the best in history.”
So shall we continue? «Are we continuing? Jokes? My Giro has just begun!».
