Pellizzari resets after Carì collapse and embraces new role

“Just no legs,” he told CyclingPro.net ahead of stage 17. “Nothing special.”

There had been illness a few days earlier, and stomach problems before that. There had been the faint hope, after his display at Pila on stage 14, that the worst of it had passed and that the final week might still carry some promise. By Tuesday evening, after Pellizzari had lost more than 18 minutes and slid out of the top ten, that idea was gone.

“I thought my problems had gone away in the last two days, especially after the rest day,” Pellizzari said. “But I don’t want to find excuses. I think it was just no legs.”

The Giro Pellizzari had imagined for himself is over. The Giro he can still ride for his team is not.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe came to the final week with two cards to play. After Carì, only Jai Hindley remains in the podium race. Pellizzari’s task is simpler now: recover what he can and ride for his teammate.

“The Giro is not over if I’m still here,” Pellizzari said. “I want to do something for the team because they helped me a lot. Jai is fighting for the podium, and I think we have a good chance with him. We will try to help him.”

What he can still offer remains to be seen. On Carì, Pellizzari was dropped almost as soon as the final climb began, just as Red Bull were setting the pace. Hindley carried on. Pellizzari went backwards.

Asked whether he was ready to sacrifice himself for Hindley in the final days, he did not hesitate.

“Of course,” he said. “We are really friends, and now I’m out of GC, so I want to help him.”

The mood, curiously, was not one of devastation. Pellizzari looked more released from pressure than crushed by disappointment. Since Blockhaus, he said, the Giro had been a slog through illness, uncertainty and fading expectations. Carì merely made official what his body had already been telling him.

“Now I’m relaxed, happy,” he said. “It was a really hard day, and the last weeks have been really hard. From Blockhaus, everything went badly. But now everything is over and I can just enjoy it. For sure it will be hard, but I just have to enjoy the last days of the Giro.”

Enjoyment may be relative. The coming stages will decide the shape of the podium, and Hindley is close enough to keep Red Bull interested. Jonas Vingegaard remains in another race, or so it appears, but the contest behind him is still alive.

“Jonas Vingegaard, we don’t have to look too much to him because we know how strong he is,” Pellizzari said. “But behind, there is a good fight between Arensman, Gall and Jai [Hindley]. I saw Jai being pretty good, and always going better, so we can be confident. We’ll try everything to put him on the podium.”