«The fans made us boo»- Corriere.it

Under water, like a badly bleached sock, the Giro shrinks. The alpine plateau, already decapitated from Cima Coppi (risk of avalanches), under the threat of the runners’ strike it becomes a little cork (74.6 km against the 200 expected): Val d’Aosta canceled, Gran San Bernardo via departure at the foot of the Croix de Coeur (2174 m), descent and ascent to Crans Montana. It is not the Giro that had been drawn, once again (it had happened under the flood of Morbegno in the pandemic year 2020
) the epic of cycling collides with the humanity of those who ride for hours in the cold, everyone chooses which side to take though Mauro Vegni, director of the Girois legitimately exasperated: «I saw the fans waiting for us under the water giving the thumbs down, I heard their buuu and I was ashamed».

Chronicle of an announced carpet. The wet arrival in Rivoli on Thursday is already full of pissi pissi, the stage in Switzerland is confirmed but the debate resumes in the hotels. The story is of Adam Hansen, the former rider behind the Morbegno schism
today president of the international union of cyclists: «Il The climate in this Giro was unforgiving, the athletes voted for the application of the protocol against extreme weather. They ask for the shortening ».

Anonymous vote, 90% in favour. Enrico Gasparotto, sports director Bora, does not mince words to explain the facts: «Either the shorter stage or the strike». Vegni, who doesn’t lack humanity, must mediate: “I had already imposed myself in Viareggio: I’m leaving, whoever is there is and whoever isn’t isn’t there – he says -, but one cannot pull too tight”. A Giro without riders is not a Giro but a Giro under threat is not a good Giro. The tradeoff is skip the Great St Bernard while keeping the Croix de Coeur, on which the wild talent of Thibaut Pinot is unleashed, mocked in the final by Rubio while the big names, except for a furious Caruso, keep going up. But, above all, along the way it clearly emerges that the extreme weather invoked by athletes to save energy in view of the great mountains is gentle drizzle at best. The descent from the Croix has patched but dry asphalt, in Switzerland there is even a pale sun. Beyond the damage the mockery.

The leader Thomas is embarrassed (“Ineos voted together with the majority, then the weather wasn’t as bad as they told us. Of course I felt sorry for the fans but plan B avoided chaos and the decision had to be taken for time, with the information we had at that moment”), Cristian Salvato, president of the Italian cyclists’ association, puts his face on it. In the general stampede after the stage, and in the impossibility of tracing who voted to keep the fraction intact (making enemies is highly discouraged: the racing group can be as dangerous as certain streets on the outskirts of Bogotà), Salvato appears on Rai with a contrite air: «In hindsight there was no bad weather: weather apps are not reliable… We have to apologize to the fans and to the organization of the Giro».

Apologies accepted, of course, but the cork that has become a cork enters the archive as a bad cycling page, this world urgently needs certain rules (if the conditions for applying the extreme weather protocol are not there, the protocol does not apply), a race cannot depend on the reliability of the apps and flaunting a strike takes away the strength of the tool itself . “Let’s talk more” is the appeal to the athletes of Vegni who, barring real climatic threats, no longer wants to hear a whisper from here to Rome. The mountain in the city of Bergamo, the Bondone, the Tre Cime, the Lussari. The Giro is a serious matter, otherwise the old totem Merckx is right: «If rain and wind are a problem, let’s play trumps».