Tour of Italy. The right joy of Nico Denz

It’s easy to say I’m on the run. It’s not enough to be there, especially when there are many of us up front, minutes before the group. You also need to have, above all, the conviction of wanting to complete it before anyone else. Because when there are many avant-gardists, the tendency is to barely do the right thing, which is always as little as possible. It is therefore necessary to be ready to disperse the escape, to have the audacity to risk losing in order to be able to win it. Above all, knowing how to seize the right opportunity. Nico Denz, Toms Skujiņš, Sebastian Berwick and Alessandro Tonelli had this audacity, they created their good chancethey took her to the finish line. The twelfth stage of the Giro d’Italia 2023, the Bra-Rivoli, was won by Nico Denz, fourth victory in his career, the most prestigious. Above all the opportunity to take what he had seen vanish at the end a few years ago. It was 2018, we arrived in Gualdo Tadino, he finished behind Matej Mohoric. Five years have gone by since then, three Giros and one Vuelta have passed, many kilometers shooting for the captains, as many seeking luck on the run.

Nico Denz has a hard head, someone who doesn’t give up, doesn’t know how to do it. One that his always does, always much appreciated by the captains that he has had. Ask Romain Bardet, Jay Hindley, Wilko Keldermann, Sam Bennett for confirmation. Any terrain is good for Nico Denz, it doesn’t matter to him whether the road goes up, down or flat, he pedals hard everywhere.

In Rivoli Nico Denz preceded Toms Skujiņš and Sebastian Berwick in a sprint that he launched and completed, which turned into uncontrollable joy, because when someone like him wins, someone who never backs down, who always gives his all what he has always ends up like this. Happiness mixes with disbelief, which is never revenge, but justice. In the sense of right, of the right joy that he deserved kilometer after kilometre. And not just at this Giro d’Italia, over the years.

The four chose the right moment, Alessandro Tonelli lost ground after having contributed to the success of the action, taking advantage of the squabbles of a handful of well-matched but ill-disposed riders, with too many people who presented the justification for not working as instead he should have done. It often ends up like this, especially before the high mountain stages, when the classification begins to be outlined and the chances of justifying yourself are less.

And when it goes like this, it always ends up being the first to move ahead of everyone else. Because quarrels are not reduced if there is to be chased as well as being chased, on the contrary they amplify. And not even the Alberto Bettiols on duty, those who push, organize, get angry, are allowed to do nothing about it.

Alberto Bettiol has long tried to convince the majority to collaborate. Uselessly. After the finish he shook hands with Ilan van Wilder, one of the few who didn’t spare too much.

The Belgian is well aware that this was a good opportunity for him. A little to try to win; a bit to try to make sense of the Soudal-Quick Step Giro without Remco Evenepoel and half a team; a little, perhaps above all, to try to understand what it can really do in the world of cycling. Ilan van Wilder is young, he is in his fourth year among the professionals, he is above all a runner who has some idea of ​​one day becoming a protagonist of stage races. Yesterday he was 12’07” from the pink jersey. Tomorrow he will restart from Borgofranco d’Ivrea with 6’08”. Seeing how he manages to dispose of today’s fatigue will be a good test to see if he can aspire one day to run a three-week stage race as a protagonist.

Even in a somewhat down-at-heel Giro, made up of rains, crashes and pandemic withdrawals, there is always some starting point for optimism.

The order of arrival of the 12th stage of the Giro d’Italia 2023