Giro d'Italia, Vingegaard's first show at Blockhaus. Pellizzari hit but not sunk
The race favourite attacked halfway up the tough final climb, breaking away from Austrian Felix Gall, who finished second, and also Italian Giulio Pellizzari, who finished fourth. The pink jersey remains with Portuguese Eulalio
They call him the Fisher King but it is in the mountains that he gives his best. As expected, but we were hoping for something more from our Pellizzari, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard on the ramps of the Blokhaus shakes up the Giro d'Italia. With four attacks, powerful but not explosive, the great favourite made a breakthrough, arriving alone at the finish line where, in another distant cycling era, in 1967, Eddy Merckx won his first stage at the Giro, laying the first brick of his extraordinary career as the unbeatable Cannibal.
But these are stories from another time
Vingo, too, when the going gets tough, is not bad at all. Our Giulio Pellizzari, in the first two attacks, with about 4.5 km to go, tried to keep up with him. And for a while he even succeeded. But he made a mistake that a good rider, with more experience than the Italian, must not make: finishing out of the race to keep up with a champion that Pogacar himself calls the 'best climber in the world'.
Result?
Giulio goes into a crisis and is saved (only partially) because his companion, the Englishman Hindley, 30 years old, already pink jersey in the Tour of 2022, comes to help him. So the blow is strong, but although he is hit, he is not sunk. In the end Pellizzari will finish fifth with a delay of one minute and 5" from the King Fisherman. It is not little, in the first real roughness of the Giro, but it is not the apocalypse. Giulio himself, who has the gift of self-criticism, admits candidly: 'I'm sorry, I threw everything away to go after him. I should have remained calmer, but I felt good. Patience, I learnt for next time,' concludes this 22-year-old who, at the moment, represents the future of our cycling, with a half-smile. There is a bit of disappointment, however.
He has courage, a good eye, even a certain cockiness. In this case, however, it backfired on him. He jokes with the jacks but leaves the saints alone. And with Jonas Vingegaard, two yellow jerseys at the Tour and two second places, you have to be careful not to get burnt. The Giro is still a long way off, of course, but some indications have come from Blockhaus: the first is that Vingegaard, with his gentlemanly ways, is, however, deadly serious. He's not like Pogacar, who is going for every finish, but he is still a 29-year-old star who wants to go for it.
"Am I happy? Of course I'm satisfied," he explained after the finish. "For me and also my teammates who worked so hard to get me to the front. Impressions? Well, that I'm doing well, but I can still grow, so I'm optimistic for the future". The message is loud and clear: dear friends, I'm doing well, but later, in the mountains in the last week, I can improve even more.
