The International Cycling Union likes to create controversy where there is none, and in the matter of clothing it establishes itself as the arbiter of elegance, of course it is an issue that goes back much further, even from when the UCI did not interfere and It was the organizers who did it. That’s why the Pelissier brothers withdrew from the 1924 Tour when Desgrange, the race boss, fined Henri for taking off a jersey he was wearing to combat the early morning cold. From that anger the journalist Albert London obtained the data for his famous article, “The Forced of the Road.”
Always in disputes over clothing, Pedro Delgado resigned himself to paying fines from the UCI for wearing white shoes in the heat of the heat, when the cycling regulatory body only allowed wearing black ones, which burned the cyclists’ feet. In 2019, commissioners walked around the exits with a device similar to the one that eugenics fanatics used to measure skulls and determine the superiority of the Aryan race many decades ago, although with a more innocent purpose, that of calibrating the height of the skull. sock, which, according to the rules, should not be more than half the distance between the center of the cyclist’s malleolus and the center of the head of the fibula.
Now, the governing bodies of the cycling body are concerned, among other things, about the color combinations of the runners. Tadej Pogacar came out on Monday with his pink leader’s jersey and a culotte maroon, in tribute to the great Torino who disappeared in Superga, and at the Swiss headquarters of the UCI all the alarms went off. Calls were exchanged, conciliations were set up, regulations were reviewed and they came to tell the Slovenian that not like that, that those colors were inadmissible. And he had only worn what the organization gave him. They point out from within that there were even threats of expulsion if he committed such an atrocity again. Gentlemen who need training wheels to ride a bicycle, questioning a two-wheeled genius.
And it wasn’t even his thing, so on Tuesday, in the fourth stage, he opted for his team’s pants and holy easter, to avoid problems, because he is only there to run, and if he can, win. In Genoa, at the start of Wednesday’s stage, the leader dressed completely in pink, but conflict is brewing for Friday, because the regulations have trapped him. Will he have to run with the jumpsuit that the organization gives him, from the Castelli brand, or with his team’s custom-made one, from Pissei? Everyone hopes that the UCI will clarify itself, or clarify it.
And meanwhile, the race continues to advance. The fifth stage of the Giro arrived in Lucca, the beautiful city in Tuscany, where Puccini and Boccherini were born, but also Mario Cipollini, the author of the best sprint symphonies in the history of the Giro, 42 victories contemplate him, so the day It was prepared for a tribute to the beautiful Mario, with hardly any geographical accidents that could entangle the stage.
In principle, everything was tied and well tied so that there would be a group arrival of the platoon. The skirmishes were controlled by the teams of the fastest, eager for adrenaline and speed. Jonathan Milan, the winner in Andora, with his cyclamen jersey, was the most interested, and his team, Lidl Trek, controlled the situation. They did not count on the appearance on the scene of four brave men. Michael Valgren, Enzo Paleni and Andrea Pietrobon, with 80 kilometers to go, and on an unimportant hill, accelerated to follow in the wake of Benjamin Thomas, a Frenchman from Cofidis, a dog of victories this year, and who was overcome by necessity to embark on an adventure with an uncertain journey.
The difference with the main group was never considerable, it remained around a minute, but in the Lidl team they did not have two determining factors. The first, that no one began to collaborate seriously with them; second, that the final kilometers were in a slight descent and also with the wind in our favor. So the piecework of the escapees was rewarded. Cipollini could only witness a four-way sprint, with Frenchman Thomas taking the jackpot of stage victory. The peloton only saw the brave ones on the very long finish line, when they were already unreachable. The spoils were disputed.
Tadej Pogacar, dressed all in pink, continues as the leader.
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