There is only one race that ends where it all began. On the podium of the Giro d’Italia number 106, awarded by President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, Primoz Roglic he doesn’t know where to lay his eyes. On the Colosseum that the last stage torn to pieces by the old Cavendish used as a buoy, making himself dizzy with amazement, or on the Baths of Caracalla, circumnavigated at 50 km/h, but down there is also the Circus Maximus in a postcard Sunday that condensed the beauty of the capital into 126 km, the last of a 3,489.2 km binge, not all memorable but the grand finale gives the creeps. “From Abruzzo to Rome I rode a roller coaster – says the queen bee Jumbo allowing herself a rare smile – I enjoyed every inch of this adventure”.
He’s not the only one, the former jumper planting the Slovenian flag on the Giro map for the first time. Rome is polished, highly populated, perfect. The ideal postcard to send to the world, because nothing better than the pink ride tells our distinctive traits more precisely. Geraint Thomas, the great Welsh loser who carries the romanticism of the successful loser in his haversack, does not let himself be distracted: on Roglic’s Sunday he pulls the group with moving generosity, he compliments the new king (“I left everything on the road: I am devastated but also moved by the support of the Italian fans”), confirms himself as a rider with personality to spare. But the spotlights are on the Jumbo in charming pink socks, which immediately after leaving Eur gathers around the captain, that skeletal and indomitable creature who withstood the crisis on the Bondone, fell twice getting up again, finished with a stitched up cut in the groin, never giving up. «In 2022 I retired from both the Tour and the Vuelta, I started preparing for the Giro a year ago: something incredible happened on Monte Lussari on Saturday».
Anecdotes, courses and recurrences of a Giro that projects Roglic into a separate dimensionbecause it is one thing to annex the Vuelta three consecutive times, from 2019 to 2021 (“But I don’t like comparing races, each has its own story”) and quite another to write one’s name in the roll of honor of a race born in 1909 alongside Coppi, Bartali, Gimondi and Merckx.
This year Roglic has won everything: Tirreno and Giro di Catalunya, the appetizer, plus the Giro, the main course. He missed a high altitude training camp to attend the birth of his second child, he returned to focus on the goal of the season. And now he struggles to find the words. «I don’t know what to say, too many emotions to manage, in 21 stages I have collected memories for a lifetime. I learned from the lesson of the 2020 Tour, when I lost the yellow jersey in the last time trial. And I don’t feel like talking about the accidents now: I’m happy to be back racing and to be part of the cycling world again. With experience I have become wiser, I can manage myself better. I don’t know what to expect from life, from now on, certainly other challenges: I like them, I don’t hold back».
The Giro is a long journey, three abundant weeks of itinerant existence, with sun and rain, laughter and tears, happy days and dog days, as life is. He has the longest mop under his hat, he has grown a goatee that his wife Lora has stroked on the Imperial Forums, at the radiant terminus of suffering. He still doesn’t know how to reward his comrades (“I received the most sincere hugs from them”), he will think about the Tour (“Now I don’t want to stress myself, it’s time to celebrate”), he jokes about his invincibility (“Come forward!”), thanks Thomas for the challenge (“We’re friends but one of us had to win, we’ll go have a beer together and we won’t let the result ruin our relationship”). It is her first time in Rome («Incredible scenario») and to honor her she brings to the podium the most precious thing, little Lev. Father and son in pink – the legacy is guaranteed.
2023-05-28 21:22:30
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