There are Giros that remain in the memory for an episode that decided or marked them. That of 1957 won by Nencini for the pee of Charly Gaul in the pink jersey. The 1969 edition for the desperate crying of Merckx ejected from the race he was dominating. Or that of 1999 for Pantani's abnormal hematocrit. Whatever happens, the Giro that will finish on Sunday in Trieste risks going down in history for the yellow of the motorcycle safety in the Stelvio descent.
Even if the classification, fixed on the Val Martello finish line, has not undergone any modifications as desired by most of the sports directors who are furious with Quintana and his team manager Unzue for not having respected what was communicated by Radio Corsa a few km before the passage on the Cima Coppi del Giro. Omega Pharma (Uran), Trek (Kiserlowski), Cannondale (Basso) led the protest aimed at asking that Quintana at least be stripped of the advantage accumulated in the descent. A bad mess. But the words used by Radio Corsa, translated into English and French but not into Spanish, if they did not expressly speak of "neutralization", implied the same thing when, after announcing the inclusion of motion of the organization with the flag raised , they specified: "all this to prevent attacks on the downhill and to ensure that the riders remain stationary in their positions and prevent them from taking big risks".
Convinced that the descent no longer counted for the purposes of the race, on the Stelvio Pass there were many who stopped, to remove all soaked rain and snow and put on dry ones to better combat the freezing of the descent. Quintana, accustomed to the rigors of the Colombian Andes, didn't stop, naturally gaining an immediate advantage by disappearing from the sight of Uran and his companions. "There were other riders in front of me and nobody slowed down," the pink jersey explained yesterday, not understanding why most of the caravan was angry with him and his team, Movistar. On his side he also had the organization which denied any neutralization.
But how can Quintana's total good faith be reconciled with the declaration made to the "Gazzetta dello Sport" by Marco Velo? The former cyclist from Brescia was on the safety-motorcycle that preceded the group of the Colombian climber. "I raised the red flag - revealed Velo - but Quintana signaled me to accelerate several times, then he overtook us and went away". After Bormio, on the daring ramps that lead to Val Martello, Quintana legitimized the conquest of the pink jersey by doubling the advantage he had over Uran at the end of the Stelvio descent. Not even the night calmed the controversy and the Giro woke up yesterday to set off from Sarnonico to Vittorio Venete facing a hot, if not very hot day: the team meeting called in the morning was a sort of all against one, with Unzue and the Quintana's Movistar on the dock.
The hope was that this indictment was enough to convince the jury and the race direction to take some action against Quintana. But nothing happened except a rebuke from the International Cycling Union, the highest organ of world cycling, to the organizers, inviting them to be more efficient next time when they communicate their decisions to the competing teams. Quintana, who is now referred to on the web with the nickname of Pinktana, was safe. And safe were his minutes of advantage established by his exploit in Val Martello and that yesterday's stage did not change in the slightest. But in the group and on the flagships, while more than twenty non-ranking men fled in general disinterest, the isolation of Quintana and his team was perceived. A climate that could entice strange alliances against the Colombian.
Memorable what Gaul did who, ousted of the pink jersey by Louison Bobet in the Bondone stage due to the now famous stop by the Luxembourger to urinate, swore revenge and set out to help Gastone Nencini in the Dolomites who eventually won the Giro at the expense of the champion French, guilty peer Gaul of having organized the attack against him. Today in the Giro we climb again: after 54km the San Pellegrino, then the Redebus before arriving in Valsugana at the 1760m peak of the Panarotta Hut: over 15km of final ascent with average gradients of almost 8% and peaks up to at 14%. It is said that Quintana will not meditate an encore to silence gossips and controversies. Stefano Pirazzi has already given him a hand unknowingly, the winner of yesterday's stage, who as he crossed the finish line, beating the Belgian Tim Wellens in a five-man sprint, cheered in his own way, making a blatant gesture of the umbrella. It was the reaction of a runner who had been trying to win something for five years but never managed to hit the mark. A sort of cycling Calloni: the one who missed even the goals scored against Milan. A rude gesture – the same one made by Pavel Tonkov in 2004 - for which Pirazzi apologized, after his ardor, but which served to shift the spotlight, at least for a while, away from the mother of all controversies that has engulfed the Giro.
