Volata in Rosà on a new ‘saved’ day where the team loses Daniel Viegas’ job
Giro d´Italia U23
Stage 5: Marostica-Rosà (132,7 km)
The chronicles cling to the first places, to the adventures of the first, to the struggles of the avant-garde. Those who are not in the privileged positions rarely have a place. At Rosà, the finish line of the fifth stage of this Giro, the stage was resolved in the sprint with victory for the Italian Jonathan Milan and with almost the entire Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team saving the day in the peloton and a tenth place finish for Antonio Puppio. Almost everything. On the route Daniel Viegas got off his bike. The Portuguese cyclist was one of the many affected by the crashes on the second day. In the two previous days the Lusitano suffered a lot, managing pain and fatigue, looking at the horizon with optimism.
“Quitting would be the easiest thing to do, but I can still help my colleagues. I hope that the pain will pass so that I can give them a hand. I don’t want to go home with a bad taste in my mouth”, said a Viegas who competed on Monday afternoon with severe pain in his hip area. With his retirement, the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team loses a great gregarious, a cyclist who is convinced of the value of the support of others even at the cost of his own brilliance. This is why he does not usually make it to the top of the rankings. And that’s why he has to make the most of his figure. The Corsa Rosa follows, however, and lines up its final part.
On the route between Marostica and Rosà Alejandro Ropero managed to retain his leading position in the combined rankings another day, it is always important for any team to get on the podium. The Spaniard tried to move on the last of the climbs to the La Rosina pass, when four riders were leading the stage with thirty kilometres to go and a minute’s margin. But the teams with sprinters ended up imposing their interest in the volata that took place at the end.
The Giro d’Italia U23 faces its last three stages and the apotheosis of the mountains in the Valtellina with a far from easy day with a start and finish in the town of Colico. The difficulty will not be particularly orographical, only 500 metres of accumulated altitude difference over its 137 kilometres, but it will be due to the appearance of the wind or above all to a very, very winding route that skirts Lake Como all day long. Alessandro Fancellu starts fourteenth overall, at 3:40, and Alejandro Ropero makes it eighteenth, at 4:22.
? Isola Press (1 y 3)
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
