Oier Lazkano, a 25-year-old giant from Vitoria, is the distrustful type, and as he eats a mini tortilla pincho after the royal reception at the Embassy on Thursday, he says that he prefers to watch, listen and keep quiet and almost never gives his opinion publicly. So when asked about the specially aerodynamic suit that has been prepared for him for the Olympic time trial (32.4 kilometres through the streets of Paris, from Invalides to Pont Alexandre III, on Saturday, starting at 16.32), the cyclist representing Spain puts a finger to his lips and replies, “sshhhh, that’s a secret.” He says it without the slightest sense of humour, with the same sincerity with which he lowers expectations about the result he might achieve at a press conference. “In any case, the last time trial of the Tour is not a reference. I had nothing at stake.” “There was no point in taking risks on the descents, and a 21st stage of the Tour is above all a brutal pain in the legs,” explains the Basque cyclist, who finished more than six minutes behind the winner between Monaco and Nice, the inevitable Tadej Pogacar. “I took it easy.”
“The good race for Oier is the line race, on Saturday 3, but I think he can get a place as a finalist in the time trial, for sure,” says the national coach, Pascual Momparler, who had to replace the race’s starter, Juan Ayuso, who withdrew from the Tour due to Covid, with the Movistar rider, very active in breakaways, great waste of watts, all the time. large loop. “The course suits him very well. It is very flat, with only 150 metres of gradient between the start and finish. Even if it rains, and water is expected, it only has four complicated curves and 200 metres of cobblestones…”
Those who seem to have the least faith in the possibilities of chronoman The Vitorian, who arrived in Paris by train from Nice last Tuesday, is responsible for the Olympic challenge, the people of the International Cycling Union (UCI) who have set an early start time for him (16.42.30, eighth of the 34 participants), 39 minutes before the big favourite, Remco Evenepoel, who is ready to confirm his splendid podium and white jersey of the Tour at the age of 24, with an Olympic gold medal won in the left bank May 1968, four final kilometres on the Boulevard Saint Germain before finishing suddenly right in the middle of the bridge that crosses the Seine, connecting the long-rebellious university district with the Grand Palais. Words of praise come from all over the world for the compact and perfectly aerodynamic position, almost an egg, of the Belgian phenomenon, almost as praised as the terrifying power of his two great rivals on paper, the Italian Filippo Ganna, a 28-year-old veteran with two World Time Trial titles and an Olympic gold medal on the Tokyo track, and the Welshman Josh Tarling, 20 years old, teammates at Ineos and Pinarello Atomica, two giants who are close to two metres tall compared to Evenepoel’s 1.71m. A year ago, in a rainy and grey Glasgow like the Paris of the first Olympics, the three shared the World Cup podium: the rainbow for Evenepoel, ahead of Ganna and Tarling, two who will have to prove that their preparation away from the Tour gave them a better performance capacity than the more than 3,000 kilometres in 83 hours and a bit of the Belgian, so happy in the mountains protected by his Mikel Landa.
Mireia Benito has a master’s degree in molecular biotechnology and is a cyclist because at the age of 20 she injured her knee playing basketball, her sport, and to recover she started cycling. “And I discovered that I liked cycling more than basketball,” says, and smiles, always smiles, the 27-year-old rider from Llorenç del Penedés, cava and castells, and Spanish time trial champion. “After that, everything happened very quickly.” She races in Belgium, where the goddess is Lotte Kopecky, and she does it in Soudal, with the same Specialized as Evenepoel where she feels very comfortable and no, she does not plan to ride in any Spanish team. “But things are changing in women’s cycling. We are growing. Apart from Movistar we have Laboral Kutxa as a strong team. I think we are in a very sweet moment. Young women who are growing up now can see that unlike a few years ago, making a living from cycling as a woman is possible, it is a job opportunity as it is for me.”
On Saturday, in the centre of Paris, she will be the only Spanish woman in the Olympic time trial final. Same distance, same route as the men, for the first time in history. “I have had a few weeks more relaxed than those in the Tour,” says Benito, who will start at 14:54, right at the halfway point. “I have been concentrating on altitude and I have taken advantage of it to push my body to the limit. I have done all the preparation that was in my hands and we will see where the road takes us.”
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