The latest snow report on the Stelvio talks about a minimum of 90 and a maximum of 340: for June, that’s a lot. Moscon got up there Wednesday night and was limited to one spin on the reels Thursday. Then the work got underway. Two weeks left until the start of the Tour, one until the Italian championships. The Trentino rider preferred a high-altitude call close to home, rather than joining the few teammates who met at Isola 2000 with Evenepoel.
It was news two days ago that another important Soudal-Quick Step player for the French challenge ended up out of action. On Tuesday, Pieter Serry (35) was hit by a car during training in Kruishoutem. He did not suffer any fractures, but due to the concussion, his vision is not yet 100%, preventing him from training. If Serry is not in the match, the responsibility on Moscon’s shoulders will be much greater. Not many riders on the Belgian team know what it means to work for a ranking leader at the Tour, Gianni is the only one to have done it in the Sky yearsracing in the teams that won the yellow jersey with Thomas and with Bernal at Ineos.
We find him in the late afternoon, mountain wolf on the pass that rejected the Giro d’Italia three weeks ago. The calm tone of voice of someone who has struggled and is now reducing the laps to recover. The Trentino accent that you close your eyes and think you see Moser. Gianni Moscon is one of those on whom you would still bet a month’s salary, and yet every time on his way he found obstacles that were too high. In his character, in the opinions of others, in his health. The restart at Soudal-Quick Step has different tones and ambitions, but it is clear that the desire to stand out is still there and is kept down for realism and opportunity. Yet he does everything to tone down, reduce expectations or keep them away.
Did you go up to… ski?
When I arrived (smiles, ed.) it had just stopped snowing and had made another 15 centimetres. The first day I did rollers, but then it goes down and on the way back I will do the uphill. I’m up here alone, it’s convenient for me to come from home. If you go far, you stay away so long that by the time the Tour starts you’re already fed up. Part of the team is in France, but not all of them. The national championships will be coming up soon, we have already had retreats together.
How is the preparation for the Tour going? At the Dauphiné you had to work a lot…
In short, it’s welcome that there’s work to be done: it means things are going well. We hope to have work at the Tour too. We did well at the Dauphiné. Remco’s performance was also good, considering where he comes from, since the Basques injury. If I think about how I saw it in Sierra Nevada in the retreat in May… He was far behind and seeing him win the time trial and only lose a little on the climbs means he is recovering well. Making top ten at the Dauphiné means you’re already going strong. And so I think if he improves between now and the Tour, he could do really well.
How is Gianni?
I’m fine, I have positive sensations and also positive numbers. Then we go faster and faster, so by now I should improve 10 percent to be competitive with the leaders. So I do my thing, I try to make myself useful to the team as long as I can. Personal ambitions are always there, but you need legs. When you go to the races you come face to face with reality and it seems objective to me that now we go faster than when I was winning. You have to be able to find something more. So I continue, I do my thing. And when I see that I’m competitive to compete for races, I compete for them. Otherwise I try to understand my position and make myself useful.
That’s an important role too, after all…
It’s an appreciated job, if one does it well. Of course it’s nice to be at the front and compete for races, it can also be done, but not for the whole year. I am very happy with the team. They are giving me the space I was looking for and a role in which I am moving well.
You experienced the eves of Team Sky going to win the Tour: are there any similarities with this year’s?
Remco goes to France for the first time. There are similarities in how we work, in the end, for better or worse, we all do the same things. What changes, if anything, is awareness. The Team Sky with which we went to the Tour was however an already experienced team, everyone had their role and knew perfectly how to do it. Everyone’s potential was known and that’s why they were selected. Here however, apart from Remco and Landa who are two champions that everyone knows, for the rest we need to find a bit of balance. This is not a team organized to work. Even in the hypothetical perspective of having the yellow jersey, I don’t know if it would be a team capable of managing it.
How do you do?
I think we would improvise along the way. And then experience says that if there is a bigger goal to work for, everyone can give their best. It comes more naturally.
Did that experience stick with you?
Yes, absolutely. For me it’s very natural to race as needed in a Tour and I think I can make it available to the team. I think I could play an important role in this regard. Having said that, the Tour is a race where if you have the legs, you get some satisfaction. As I always say, the important thing is to have legs.
Were the last two years at Astana wasted for both of you, or were they of any use in terms of experience?
Let’s say that It wasn’t the best two years for me, for different reasons. But in the end I think that everything is part of a larger plan. We have to draw conclusions in the end. Maybe in five years I will understand that those two years taught me something, they gave me training that will be useful for dealing with other situations. From this point of view, I am not looking at the lost years, but looking forward.
Could the Italian championship be a goal or the last distance before the Tour?
It’s definitely a goal. Lately there are no certainties anymore, you go fast, the others go fast. So what can I tell you? I take it like any other race, I go to Florence and give it my all. Then what comes, comes. Now I no longer feel able to declare the objectives, because the level is so high that to give guarantees you really need to be superior.
When are you coming down from up there?
I think Wednesday, in time to change my suitcase and go down to Florence. Times are very tight, I’m already lucky to have spent two days at home, Monday and Tuesday. So now I’m here to train. Outside there is a beautiful view, the sky is clear. Let’s hope it holds up like this.
