“Karel Vacek’s Emotional Second Place Finish in the 7th Stage of Giro d’Italia 2023”

12/05/2023 | Marek Matějka, photo by LaPresse, Sirotti

Karel Vacek was extremely emotional after a more than 200-kilometer escape in the mountain stage of the Giro with the goal of Gran Sasso d’Italia. “I had such a stone fall from my heart that I think an avalanche must have fallen on that hill. For me, second place is a victory. In a way, it saved my life,” he confided after probably the hardest race of his career.

While brother Mathias, who is two years younger, shone in the U23 category and among the professionals in the last two years, Karel moved from one team to another and it seemed that he would never live up to the reputation of a huge talent that he carried with him from the juniors. At the finish line of the 7th stage of the Giro d’Italia, he even admitted that he had already considered the end of his professional career last year. But in the first truly mountainous stage, he showed that nothing is lost yet.

“I’m still absorbing it because it’s my first Grand Tour. It is unbelievable. Especially after so many years of searching and all the hard things that happened. It’s brutal, and most of all, it’s a terrible pain.” he says just a few hours after the end of the stage.

At the beginning of the stage, no one believed that initially only a group of four refugees could make it to the finish line. “This morning our sports director asked who felt like a leak. After yesterday’s hard stage, everyone was stony and I wasn’t feeling the best either, but I just said I was going to escape today. I got in about five times to take the spill away and it worked.” goes behind the scenes of the Corratec-Selle Italia team’s best result at this year’s Giro.

“The fact that there were only four of us surprised me a little. In the end there were only three of us, which I did not understand at all. So it was even harder. I sewed a hard whip on myself, but that’s my lifestyle. I’ve always had to fight for everything and nothing was given to me for free, so it’s a confirmation that a person is capable of anything.”

It was clear from the expression on Vacka’s face that he was already at the limit of his abilities in the last climb, the 26 kilometer long climb to the Gran Sasso d’Italia: „Well, I had more crises, but the worst was probably that I wanted to pee terribly, but I couldn’t. The last 30 kilometers were brutal, I was praying and I really thought I was going to drop. Towards the end, I even dropped out, but simply the will and what a person can do is really unreal. I wouldn’t even say such a thing is possible.’

The peloton chose a free day in the 7th stage, the DSM team did not pull the breakaway, just kept the distance and protected the pink jersey of Andreas Leknessund. “It was a bit boring, I didn’t have to fight for the jersey at all,” said the Norwegian after the race. At the front, however, the competitors took it completely differently. Vacek was not sure whether they would be caught until the last kilometer: “Because you never know what can happen. I was mainly praying that they wouldn’t start driving some kind of carving in the back because that would be a problem. The peloton is able to drop a minute per kilometer. In cycling, you never know when it might happen. I was a little lucky, but I think I deserved it a little after the terrible effort.’

It is not usual for the runner-up to rejoice at the finish line perhaps even more than the winner. “The race is not over yet, and if I managed to show up in some escapes, it would be a great bonus. And even if I had to leave the Giro tomorrow because I would die in bed from the pain of today’s stage, I will be happy,“ concludes the elder of the Vack brothers.