More than finished, it is a mutilated, vilified and offended Giro. This time Tadej Pogacar, who has kept him up with all his strength in these two weeks, has nothing to do with it, but a set of messes and rebounds between the organization (Rcs Sport) and the world runners’ association (CPA), represented for the occasion by president Adam Hansen. «I am prepared to face a day like this, but the organizers should also be prepared and have a plan B. If they want us to run, I can do it too, but the organization should have been better», says serene Tadej Pogacar, with the his usual smile that lights up a dark, freezing, wet and snowy morning and which he will make sweet and full of light for his fifth stage victory, which allows him to increase his lead over everyone else.
Every year the same story, with the same actors: on one side the organizers without plan B and alternatives to spend, on the other the runners who ask for safety and reassurance the previous evening. All seasoned with the usual minuet of we’re leaving and we’re not leaving which lasts for hours, with the mayor of Livigno (Remo Galli, ed.) on the starting line waiting for the runners and they don’t show up, because in the meantime it starts to snow. «We are not clowns and we don’t do any parades», the runners say, quite annoyed.
Indignant tones: the riders disregarded the agreement, complete with a handshake between the parties! The wounded organizers let their pride be known in a note. «It’s true, I gave the hand, confirms Christian Salvato, national president of the runners and world delegate -, it’s a shame that after an hour and a half, the rain turned into snow and the runners didn’t feel like marching through the streets of Livigno”.
The riders were angry, Ben O’Connor, the Australian from Decathlon Ag2r La Difesa, was very harsh and defined Giro director Mauro Vegni as a “dinosaur” and the Giro as “one of the worst organized races in the world”. Philippe Gilbert, former world champion and classic hunter, instead chooses the path of irony on Instagram, posting a map and four entry bans on the upcoming mountain stages and advising his former colleagues to take the route directly to Rome.
His is clearly a provocation, but given the stage that awaits us today, with the Sella and Rolle passes to climb, it is not excluded that we find ourselves back to the starting point: that of not starting.
