Garosio, Gavazzi and Fortunato: fighters in the rain.

It really seems that the cold, wind and rain have taken a liking to us. Having abandoned Spain, where riders were pelted by the blows of winter, even at the start of the Italian calendar the weather had fun messing up the group’s plans. Strong winds and cold rain swept through Laigueglia, and the riders had to work even harder than usual to bring home the skin.

In the end, Nans Peters won, doing a great job of finalizing a solo attack on the Capo Mele on the second of four passes: he took off, and no one could catch him. For EOLO KOMETA, the day had the face of Andrea Garosio’s breakaway, who was able to enter the day’s attack and hold on until the UAE men decided to open the throttle and take over the race. Their forcing reduced the group has about 20 riders including our Fortunato and Gavazzi, good the latter to grit his teeth and resist to close in the top 20.

Stefano Zanatta: “We started well with the breakaway of Garosio, who managed to stay on the attack in the first two GPMs, then the UAE accelerated and on the descent the rain made everything more difficult. The group broke up, Fortunato and Gavazzi held out in front, and I think we did the best we could on a day made difficult by the rain and the fact that there were so many World Tour riders in front that we still struggle to relate to.”

Andrea Garosio: “I had the task together with Fancellu to center the breakaway and I succeeded, I tried to manage myself to be able to get as far as possible, I had good feelings but then the group from behind started to accelerate early since it had started to rain, and the breakaway was cancelled. Unfortunately it was also a windy day and up front we really struggled, then the rain did the rest by breaking the group.”