Astana, black day: Nibali crisis and Lopez withdrawal

The sports director Martinelli must reinvent the team, the pupil Gasparotto instead has an abundance of the Bora and enjoys the king of Etna

MOUNT ETNA. The novice and the veteran: Enrico Gasparotto e Giuseppe Martinelli, a past in Astana, one runner the other ds. Tuesday 10 May for the 40-year-old from Friuli, from Casarsa like Pasolini, the first victory in the Giro arrived on the flagship of the Bora Hansgrohe where he has been working since the beginning of the season.

Kamna made him happy («and the boy has ample room for improvement», assured the double winner of Amstel) and in the team he has three aces to hand: Buchmann, Hindley and Keldermann, the best placed in the standings. They are not at their best, but having them.

Martinelli would like a couple of these. The most successful of the Italian ds, a 67-year-old from Bergamo, has a good grit in the team: Nibali raised the white flag due to the registry office for the general, Miguel Angel Lopezthe Colombian who had blossomed (podium at the 2018 Giro) and then rejoined the team after the flop at Movistar retired at the start of the stage.

Pain in a hip, worsened since the beginning of the Giro, said team doctor Emilio Magni. And now? Team tactics to be reinvented. But Martinelli is a champion. In short, if the riders at Italbici are in hiding, let us console ourselves: at least we export technicians.

[email protected]