Sonny Colbrelli and his Milan-San Remo in reverse: “I’ll follow you in the flagship, I’ve chosen life”

MILAN – This time, at the Milano-Sanremo, Sonny Colbrelli will have a place at the back of the group.

“That’s right, I’ll be in a Bahrain-Victorious support car, I’ll move on some points of the course, I’ll also be on the Poggio. It’s my new life, I’m studying to be a sports director. Arrived suddenly, it’s true, this life, and I try to like it. But the experience of someone who was in a group up to a year ago and raced the Sanremo 9 times is fundamental”.

It can’t be easy for you, Colbrelli, who just on March 21, 2022 took a long avenue in Saint Feliu de Guixols, at the Volta a Cataluya. The sprint and then nothing more.
“I remember every moment of those moments: a straight straight that was all slightly uphill, the rain and the cold, and how strange, I thought, to be in Catalonia in March. I didn’t have to do the stage and instead I was flying. Second behind Matthews. After the line I am joined by my masseur, I take a sip of water. And then I wake up in the hospital, in Girona”.

Cardiac arrest.
“At the age of 32, another race begins for me. And another life. A boy, a medical student, an enthusiast saved me, he was there by chance. We kept in touch, I would like to go and see him soon” .

They implant a defibrillator under the skin. As in Eriksen. You can play football like this, you can’t run in cycling.
“I think this is also right, football is played in a rectangle, cycling is a more complex story, it occupies worlds, spaces, landscapes, mountains, where it is not always possible to intervene promptly. I chose life, my children. One easy choice, yet very painful, in the best moment of my career”.

And so he finds himself team man of the team. In Belgium, at Omloop and at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne he distributed water bottles for his former teammates.
“I’m gregarious again, let’s put it this way, I also had fun, but I understood that cycling is made up of many details and giving bottles in the correct way, don’t make a mess, it’s far from simple. When you’re on a bike, you don’t realize you know how fast you go. You know when you’re down to earth.”

At the Milano-Sanremo, the first Monument Classic of the season, Bahrain presents the defending champion, the Slovenian Matej Mohoric.
“A year ago Matej worked like crazy to figure out all the details of the Poggio descent, and he did what he did. And he worked no less this year, precisely because Sanremo is a vice, if you win it you want to win it again. It’s very difficult, and therefore very stimulating. If we look at the roll of honor, the last one to win at least two was Oscar Freire and the last to win two in a row was Erik Zabel. It’s been over twenty years”.

Last year Mohoric wowed everyone with the dropper post. Does he have other devilry in mind?
“He’ll do it again, but now everyone knows it. But try to keep up with Mohoric on a descent as bad as the one at Poggio”.

Is Pogacar the strongest of the lot?
“Certainly he comes with the numbers on his side, he won the Paris-Nice without apparent effort, he never misses the moment and has a burning sprint. Last year, however, he attacked too early on the Poggio and then tried again and again. Too obvious On the Poggio you have to attack once and hard”.

Like Nibali in 2018, when she was the captain of her Bahrain at Sanremo.
“An unforgettable day. Very cold at the start, slow run, he didn’t even have to do it, he decided at the last minute to come to Milan. I was the captain, it’s true. Then before the Cipressa Vincenzo comes and says to me “Sonny, I’ll try on the Poggio”. I acted as a stopper, I blew up many substitutions in the group behind and then I threw myself into the sprint. I remember the great crowd afterwards, the party on the bus”.

Did you love the Classicissima?
“It’s impossible not to love a race that you never know how it will end: group or small group sprint, uphill or downhill attack, from the Cipressa, from the Poggio, there are those who have won it like Chiappucci starting on the Turchino. Since 2016 he has always finished differently. At Roubaix, especially when there’s mud, like when I won it, you need stratospheric legs. At Sanremo you also need a lot of luck. The weather and the wind above all are decisive variables. In 2013 c “I was too, we found snow, they took us by bus to Cogoleto, we ended up after dark. In a tight sprint I could have had my say many times. I’ve never been better than sixth. I’ve never been in the right place at the right time Right”.

Candidate for the Lombardy Region with Forza Italia, he was not elected. Politics, too, wasn’t the right place for her?
“However, I got a lot of votes. My idea was to bring attention to the problem of bike safety. Davide Rebellin’s death touched me deeply. I’ll continue to work on it anyway and bring my experience around Italy “.