Florence It is a beautiful city where it is practically impossible to walk due to the many tourists who roam the streets at any time of the day. To cross, for example, the famous Puente Vecchio, You almost have to elbow each other like a sprinter looking for a position to compete in the sprint, something that will not happen in a Tour dressed up as a Giro until Monday when the riders fight for victory in Turin.
The capital of Tuscany, the region of monuments, wines and idyllic landscapes, will become this Saturday the last departure of the Tour from abroad and until Barcelona, in 2026, takes the baton of the Italian city since the Next year the birth of the race will take place in Lille, in the north of France and near the cobblestones of Paris-Roubaix.
He Great departurenow in Tuscany and in two years in Catalonia, is a unique event, which attracts visitors from all over, although Florence certainly does not need them, which closes the city and, above all, decorates it with the yellow colours of the Tour, which sells its entire arsenal of products, although the cyclists, the true protagonists of the race, are rarely seen, because in the centre of Florence if walking is already difficult, pedalling is a task for heroes.
The first stage / / THE TOUR
So the runners stayed in almost fortified hotels, all on the outskirts of the capital with nearby roads to train and think about the authentic start of the race that the Tour and the Italian organization has prepared for them for the first weekend. this Saturday with arrival in Rimini and on Sunday with finish in Bologna.
the italian heroes
Surely the Italian Tour champions being honoured would never have imagined, except for Vincenzo Nibali, the only one still alive, that one day the race they won would start in Italy; from Ottavio Bottechia, murdered by the fascists in 1927, to the now retired ‘Shark of the Strait’ Nibalipreceded by the triumphs of Gino Bartalithe ‘champion’ Fausto Coppi, Gaston Nencinithe great Felice Gimondi and a ‘Pirate’ called Mark Pantaniborn in Cesenatico, where the second stage starts on Sunday.
Because this Saturday is not scheduled, by any means, a relaxing stage with a mass finish in sight, as has almost always happened, except if a time trial was scheduled as the debut of the Tour. There is the chilling figure of 3,600 meters of positive gradient, in a French round with the face of a Giro that will discover the Apennines and pass through the Republic of San Marinowhere the last two of the seven scheduled ports are located.
All eyes are therefore on one person, Tadej Pogacar, who has announced that he wants to make history after winning the Giro with a victory in the Tour, a double that no one has achieved since Pantani did it in 1998, in the worst year in cycling, with a peloton that was riding through a tunnel surrounded by druids and with EPO (an acronym that is fortunately no longer in use) circulating in his veins. “I have trained very well and my form is even better than it was in the Giro,” he repeated in Florence, recalling his victory in Rome a month ago.
Opinions about Pogacar
Nobody rules out anything, not even that Pogacar He tried in the Tour what he failed to achieve in the Giro, to dress as a leader on the first day (in the Italian round he did so on the second and until the end) even though riders like Mathieu van der Poel try to make it difficult for him.
On Friday, Jonas Vingegaard arrived smiling at the Palazzo Vecchio, from where the carousel of runners that crossed the center of Florence departed. He was chatting with Geraint Thomas. “After the fall in the Basque Country, being here is already a reward,” he said in a press conference without any big quotes or headlines. “If he is here it is because his team believes that he can fight for victory,” he added on Friday. Enrique Mas, one of the Spanish stars. “The UAE will take control in the first stage,” predicted Pello Bilbao. So everyone pending from the beginning of a Pogacar feared for his bravery and throughout the Tour known from one border to the other.
2024-06-28 15:59:29
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