Simone Velasco
A year with the tricolor on his shoulders, great pride for a cyclist. On Sunday 23 June Simone Velasco raced for the first time in 365 days without carrying the Italian professional road cycling champion’s jersey on his shoulders. Yet, on the very day of his abdication, he tried hard to do an encore, surrendering only to the misfortune of a series of mechanical problems in crucial moments and to the stupendous performance of another Tuscan, Alberto Bettiol, solitary winner in the Tuscan edition of the tricolor race in Sesto Fiorentino. In the end Simone was eighth, for what matters in a race like this, but demonstrating if there was any need that he is always in the leading group.
“I ended a year full of satisfactions and great pride traveling around Europe with that shirt on my shoulders – Simone told us at the end of the day – and now I’m preparing to face the second part of the season”. No Tour de France this year for him, who raced the Giro d’Italia and the Giro di Svizzera in a row. “Now for a bit of rest at home on the Island of Elba, then we return to the mountains to prepare for the Tour of the Apennines, where I will return to racing on 14 July”.
