Sunday 23 June Alberto Bettiol became Italian Road Champion for the first time. He did it on the roads of his home in front of his family and friends, all a few days before the start of the Tour de France which will leave from Florence on June 29th. We reached him by telephone a few days after the Italian event and a few hours before his departure for the Tour, when disbelief began to give way to the awareness of the feat accomplished: “Sunday was the perfect day, it was a goal and in front of all my friends, my family and a lot of fans along the way it was something magnificent. It was a day that I will carry in my heart forever“.
You’ve realized a dream: how do you wake up the next day?
“At the moment nothing has changed yet, but not for long, until I wear the tricolour jersey”.
Did you expect to go so fast and therefore have this condition after retiring at Switzerland due to a fall?
“I didn’t think I would go so fast. After the fall at Switzerland I had various problems including an infection in my arm and I had to take antibiotics, furthermore the great heat had arrived in Tuscany and therefore the wounds struggled to heal so much so that I was unable to have massages for a week. The Italian Championship is one of the most difficult races to interpret, I was alone and the group was small. The circuit was quite selective and Lidl-Trek and Astana made the race. There was a moment, three laps from the finish, when I thought I had lost the race because there was a breakaway with some riders – including Rota and Zambanini – and behind the group there was no agreement but there were continuous shots. However, we managed to get to the start of the climb 30″ behind the breakaway and there I took the climb alone at a fast pace and managed to get back into the group of escapees. It was then the last lap of the circuit that was decisive.”
Who did you make the first call to?
“I got the phone late, I don’t remember well but I think I called Gabriele Balducci to find out how his dancing heart was feeling (he tells us with a touch of irony, ed.). I know he was in the car all day, the night before, close to the Italian appointment, he struggled to sleep, but when I called him he told me that he was celebrating with my masseur and some of our friends. I therefore wanted to make sure he was okay, even though they told me that during the last lap of the race they saw him very tense”.
A tricolor that started from Florence and then ended 200 meters from the house of the historic Italian coach Alfredo Martini. How many times have you thought about it?
“I’ve often thought about it. Already when Gabriele and I went to see the circuit to try it out for the Championships, we stopped in front of his house. I lived Martini during his last years, I had the honor of going to his house and together with him I watched the 2011 Freccia Wallone. Alfredo is a pillar of our movement, I know his family well and during the race I had the opportunity to think of both him and Franco Vita (the historic driver of coach Martini, ed.) when they came to retreat together in Mastromarco”.
In a few days you will be at the start of the Tour which will start, for the first time in history, from Italy. From Florence precisely, to your land, and you would go there dressed in the tricolor. What does it mean for you?
“It’s something beyond imagination, it’s a dream. It means a lot, it means that I have reached a very high level in my career and at the Cannondale event on Tuesday I was able to relive all these years on the bike.”
At the Tour with what ambitions?
“Everyone thinks about the first day and therefore the first Yellow Jersey which would certainly be something truly unique. The first stages of the Grand Tours, especially in the Tour, are very nervous and therefore it will be important to stay out of danger. I hope to be able to seize my opportunity at the Tour and therefore be able to win a stage after Stradella’s at the 2021 Giro. And doing so with the Italian Champion jersey is a big dream.”
Then there will be the Paris Olympic Games where you, still in unsuspecting times, were chosen by coach Bennati as the captain in the road test on August 3rd…
“The Olympics are a consequence, at the moment I’m focused on the Tour de France, but immediately afterwards I will leave for Paris where I will race both the time trial and the road test the following week. The Games are still far away, first there are three weeks of Tour to face.”
