When in the last Milano-Sanremo, won by Julian Alaphilippe, Alberto Bettiol was the first to sprint up the Poggio unleashing the final tussle, even TV commentators of the caliber of Riccardo Magrini, a life on a bicycle, did not have time to recognize him before he was reabsorbed . From yesterday it will certainly be easier to identify and keep an eye on him, because this Tuscan from Poggibonsi, born in 1993, to win his first professional race he chose nothing less than a classic-monument like the Ronde, staging a superb action started 17km from the finish in Oudenaarde, sprinting up the mythical wall of Oude Kwaremont and then resisting the pursuit of a group of sixteen riders which included, in addition to the world champion Valverde, almost all the great favorites of the eve, from Sagan to Van Avermaet, from Kristoff to Van der Poel.
It looked like the leap of the hare on duty destined to soon be caught up again by the pack of wolves on its hunt, ready to cancel the gap that fluctuated by 18 seconds at the exit of Old Kwaremont. There was still the last wall to face, the Pateberg but Bettiol overcame it without damage, indeed increased the advantage, a 10km stretch without ever looking back, pedaling like an authentic time trialist on the long flat straights that lead to the finish line. “They were – as he will later say on the podium – the longest kilometers of my life”. When glory was 2 meters away, the void behind him was measured at 27”. A shot that blew up the bank and all the predictions of the eve. The shy hare, wearing the EF-Education First jacket, had become an unattainable prey.
Behind it there was now more resignation than collaboration in exchanges. Sagan's lack of anger was disappointing, almost as if the Slovakian was more interested in making his big rivals lose the Ronde than in trying to win it for the second time. Only Van Avermaet was still trying in vain to make a connection but it was too lonely to make it concrete. The pack of wolves had now transformed into that of the great losers who on the endless avenue of arrival could only see in the distance the amazing success of the Italian you don't expect.
Bettiol had plenty of time to prepare the scenography of his triumph, raising his arms to the sky and then miming the gesture of the two fingers brought before his eyes, typical of Dybala when he scores the goal. Behind him at 14" came Kasper Asgreen, third at 17" was Alexander Kristoff who regulated the squad of the beaten by burning Van der Poel, victim of a bad fall hitting a flower bed, which delayed him in the middle of the race forcing him to a frantic run-up to re-enter the group of favourites, from which Niki Terpstra, winner of the 2018 edition, had come out due to another tumble that forced him to retire and forfeit next Sunday's Paris-Roubaix. Michael Matthews was sixth followed by the timeless Valverde, ready to return to the Ronde after yesterday's debut aged 39. Van Avermaet closed the top ten. Melancholic eleventh place for Sagan, a pale and listless photocopy of the champion capable of winning the world title three times and the green jersey of the points classification of the Tour six times.
Bettiol brings Italy back to the highest podium in the Ronde, an event that hasn't happened since 2007 when Alessandro Ballan won. It is the eleventh success of one of our riders on the legendary Flemish walls, triumphs that began with the consecutive hat-trick that earned Fiorenzo Magni the nickname of "Lion of Flanders" in 1949-50 and 51. 16 years had to pass, thanks to the triumph of Dino Zandegù in 1967, to find an Italian at the top of the order of the arrival of the Ronde. The fast before Moreno Argentin's fifth success in 1990 was even longer. In 1994 it was Gianni Bugno's turn, two years later in 1996 Michele Bartoli won. In the new millennium, before Ballan and Bettiol, Gianluca Bortolami won the Ronde. Completing the triumphal Sunday of Italian cycling on the Flemish walls was also the victory of Marta Bastianelli, reigning European champion, who on the finish line in Oudenaarde burned her two breakaway companions by winning the women's Ronde.
