While waiting for its best-known runner, Nairo Quintana, to bring out the first claws of the condor tomorrow in the stage that will end on Etna, Colombia is celebrating with its sort of white lion that is Fernando Gaviria, 23 next 19 August, extraordinary sprinter in a land of climbers only since the days of the legendary Lucho Herrera, pioneer of Andean cycling: stage and pink jersey, all in one day in the Cagliari wind, in the last stage of the Sardinian Giro triptych before the transfer of the caravan in Sicily. Its success was also a group masterpiece, that of Quick-Step Floors, a Belgian team and as such accustomed to the north wind, which took advantage of every violent gust that blew over Sardinia yesterday to create that decisive hole in the final which knocked out the most feared rivals, namely Greipel in pink and Ewan.
With the help of his teammates Jungels and Richeze, it was easy for Gaviria to get the better of the German Selig and the Italian champion, Giacomo Nizzolo, in a seven-man sprint, obtaining his first victory in the first major stage race in which he participates . Cagliari, which in the past saw the triumphs of true sprinters like Mario Cipollini in 1991, gives the Colombian, thanks to the bonus of 10” seconds, also the lead in the standings. It is not remembered in living memory in the history of the Giro that the pink jersey ended up on the shoulders of the three different winners of the first three stages who also wore it for the first time. In Olbia it was the Austrian Lukas Postlberger who celebrated, in Tortoli André Greipel, yesterday in Cagliari Gaviria.
Probably, after today's rest, tomorrow the pink jersey will find a new owner on Etna, it will probably be the one who will win at 1892 meters of the Sapienza Refuge on the highest volcano in Europe. A final climb about 20 km long without harsh peaks but which will certainly be the first probative test for the two big favourites, Quintana and Nibali, but also for the candidates for the final top ten, all still with the same time, 13" seconds from the jersey pink, except for the unfortunate Rohan Dennis, victim of one of the many falls due to the wind, who closed yesterday's stage over 5 minutes late. Now the Bmc must concentrate the hopes of a good final placement on Teejay Van Garderen alone.
The Giro arrives on Etna for the fourth time: the first was in 1967, the final victory of Felice Gimondi, with the success of Franco Bitossi, crazy heart, while Michele Dancelli was in the pink jersey; the Gazzetta race returned to the volcano 22 years later in 1989 and it was the Portuguese Acacio da Silva who won and conquered the primacy which in the end fell to the late Laurent Fignon; useless for statistical purposes was instead the victory of Alberto Contador in 2011, a display of strength on the cone of fire of the Pistolero, who swept the Giro but that everything was taken from him due to the disqualification of doping. The pink jersey was assigned to Michele Scarponi.
