The man from Brescia comes out of the Northern Hell as a king: “I was at the limit, it’s my year” Quarto Moscon who, after a great action, first punctured and then fell
Roubaix (france)
Mameli’s anthem resounds in Paris-Roubaix. The golden year of Italian sport did not stop even in front of the mud and cobblestones of the Northern Hell which in this now unforgettable 2021 becomes a land of conquest for a blue, Sonny Colbrelli, after a wait of 22 years. Raising his arms to the sky in the Roubaix velodrome, at the end of 257 kilometers and over six hard hours on a track that the autumn rains made even more treacherous than usual, was the 31-year-old from Brescia who in turn crowned a triumphal season after the conquest of the Italian and European title.
But Italy was also the protagonist with Gianni Moscon, the Trentino protagonist of a long solitary escape that only bad luck – a puncture followed by a fall on sections of slippery cobblestones like never before – managed to block. To reach him were Colbrelli himself, the dangerous Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel and the Belgian Florian Vermeersch, with the Italian good at taking the baton of victory going to impose himself in the sprint, with the last available forces, in the velodrome.
While Moscon finished his lap to close in fourth place, Colbrelli remained on the ground in the grass, with tears streaming down the dry mud that hid his face. «It is a legend, one of my dreams come true – his first words – For the sprint I followed Van der Poel, at 200 meters Veermersch started, at 25 meters I jumped out for the victory. I was on the edge but I did it. It’s my year, I’m really happy ». In his long career, with thirty victories to his credit, Colbrelli finally managed to win a classic “monument”, in one edition, the 118, held for the first time in autumn due to Covid which had prevented it held in 2020. In 2019, the Belgian Philippe Gilbert, lackluster yesterday, had won and he was succeeded by the Italian who signed the 12th Italian victory, the first in the twenty-first century since Andrea Tafi had imposed himself in the now distant 1999. A blue-colored rebirth, which chased away the rain, clouds and mud dominant for almost all the 257 kilometers of the route, with the 55 paved cobbles that put everyone to the test, reaping falls even among the motorbikes in tow. . In one of the most bumpy stretches Moscon lost his chance, who was leading with more than 1’20 ” ahead of his pursuers, among which van der Poel was the most aggressive, but followed like a shadow by Colbrelli who remained always in the leading positions, perhaps feeling he can seize his chance. The man from Trentino lost almost all of the hard-earned margin first due to a puncture and then a fall, which also undermined his safety. –