Alberto Bettiol he will wear the tricolor shirt at Tour de France. On his home roads, in Sesto Fiorentino, the winner of the Tour of Flanders 2019 he dominated the Italian championship in line with an attacking race and finished alone in front of Lorenzo Rota and Edoardo Zambaniniarriving 17″ behind him, 4th Filippo Ganna at 20”, national time trial champion. The good attack came about 45km from the finish line. The three, with Zoccarato, also arrived together on the last climb of Monte Morello. Then the decisive thrust from Bettiol, the only EF rider competing in the Italian championship. The arrival was a few steps from Alfredo Martini’s house. The tricolor championship was also valid as an edition of Per semper Alfredo. “A beautiful day, but very hard” Bettiol said after arriving, “I had no teammates and it was doubly hard. I didn’t expect to go so fast, I was coming off a complicated week after the crash at the Tour of Switzerland. The only way to keep me motivated was this run. I expect a great show in Florence for the start of the Tour. I hope to be worthy of this jersey. Alfredo Martini was a special person for me. He gets older, he matures, he learns from mistakes. Cycling has now become very competitive. I’ve been thinking about this race for a couple of years and I’m happy that I managed to win it.”
Bettiol, 30 years old, 8 successes as a professional, succeeds another Tuscan, Simone Velasco, and will wear the tricolor for the first time in Florence, on Saturday 29 June, at the start of the Grande Boucle. The Tuscan (he is from Castiglion Fiorentino) should also be Italian captain at the Paris Olympics in the road race.
The other national champions
In France, victory in the national championship, the first as a pro, for Paul Lapeira (Decathlon). Great battle in Belgium with final victory for Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) ahead of Philipsen and Meeus, 5th Van Aert. Successful flight to Holland for Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco). In Spain Aranburu (Movistar) wins. Marco Brenner (Tudor) in Germany, Rasmus Pedersen in Denmark, Hoelgaard in Norway. Rui Costa wins again in Portugal, Michael Woods in Canada, Osorio in Colombia ahead of Higuita and Bernal, Narvaez on Carapaz in Ecuador. In Slovenia, without Pogacar and Roglic, Pogi’s teammate Domen Novak wins ahead of Glivar, Mohoric third.
