by Marco Bonarrigo
The Italian, 38 years old, won the second stage of the Tour of the Alps (190 km from Salorno to Schwaz, Austria) after an endless breakaway together with the Austrian Gamper and the Frenchman Pellaud
«I, Alessandro De Marchi, at almost 38 years old, represent a cycling that no longer exists, an endurance cycling and I believe also an educated cycling. Many colleagues are aggressive in their behavior, I would like to see that aggressiveness even when, as I did here, you have to take ten shots to launch an escape that will last hours and you are not at all sure that it will be successful.” More than two years after the last Italian day victory, on Tuesday Alessandro De Marchi won the second stage of the Tour of the Alps (190 km from Salorno to Schwaz, Austria) after an endless breakaway together with the Austrian Gamper and the Frenchman Pellaud , arrived in order, and relegating the Tobias Foss pink jersey group to almost two minutes.
Friulian, former pink jersey of the Giro d’Italia, winner of three stages of the Vuelta, of the Giro dell’Emilia and of the Tre Valli Varesine, Alessandro De Marchi is the great sage of Italian professionalism both for his commitment to safety and extra sporting: he is the running testimonial of the association that asks for the truth about the death of Giulio Regeni. De Marchi, who competes with the Australian Jayco, analyzes his action like this: «I have been on the run for 15 years: I have accumulated many failures and some successes. Many young people sprint at the start of the race and turn around after 100 metres: if the action didn’t go well they turn back. If you are not Pogacar or Evenepoel who succeeds in everything because they are phenomena, you need hunger, courage and recklessness because now the technical means, training and nutrition science are at the highest levels and above all within everyone’s reach: courage makes the difference and determination. Today I struggled a lot but I was looking for answers to the work done and a good signal in view of the Giro d’Italia.”
«Current cycling is exasperated and in a certain sense dangerous – continues De Marchi – for a long series of reasons: increasingly high-performance bikes, braking systems so efficient that they make you believe you are immortal, high average level of a group in which everyone races to stay in the lead. Then we get so much information via radio (watch out for the next bend, watch out for the pothole in 500 metres) that, paradoxically, it risks causing the opposite effect: panic and falls. It’s not an easy situation.”
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April 16, 2024 (modified April 16, 2024 | 4:59 pm)
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