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Coffee, halfway

As the Tour heads west tomorrow, I have come to spend the day in Rapallo, next to Genoa, with my friend the great sprint shooter that his team, like me, has also left out of the Tour. In Nice, on the first day, they didn’t even smell it while his colleague Morkov gave a recital, although Bennett didn’t take advantage of it later.

There will be time to eat ratatouille, foie gras, croissants and other French delicacies, but you had to take the opportunity to go to Italy for a coffee. The cup and the coffee pot, always halfway. We sit on his terrace and he comes with the Italian coffee maker still gurgling. I open the lid and the coffee does not reach the top or even far. That the single cup at the bar filled to the top is a vulgarity I already knew, but not that the home coffee maker should also be done that way.

There’s cycling on TV … and it’s the Marco Pantani Memorial. The Tour does not matter (of course, we are not here), only the bike of the first yellow jersey, that wonderful Colnago. Giuseppe Saronni is true to his usual brand. And to the traditions. He makes the UAE shoot even though he knows Kristoff has no chance of keeping yellow. You have to honor the leader, ditch my friend.

We went down to the promenade to see the end and the barista, Ciro –he is a Neapolitan–, agrees. The jersey if onora. Here, making a beautiful figure is the most important thing. Sagan stays at the first of changes and they believe that it is good, it will be very good in the Giro, which is what counts.

You can almost see Nice from here. It’s lazy to go back. They ask me if I will run the Giro. I think not, that the Vuelta, if it is disputed, which remains to be seen. Actually, I have the head in the coming season. It has been a lost year; I am a professional and I am not going to say goodbye in the French way – well the topic. I hope to win a race still with this jersey.

I return to Nice via the flower highway. The Mediterranean is magnificent. The next time the Tour touches the coast, the sea will not be the same. The Atlantic does not understand dolce vita.

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