Marco Pinotti

Marco Pinotti describes Taylor Phinney’s days of glory and crashes

Published:

May 12, 10:19,

Updated:

May 12, 10:23

By:

Marco Pinotti

American's bad luck affected BMC in team time trial

Ciao from Pesaro on the East coast, watching the Adriatic Sea from the hotel room I share with my team-mate Mathias Frank. Let’s talk about another team-mate of mine: Taylor Phinney. In the past five days, the world has discovered a phenomenal person. He’s the kind of champion that cycling needs. Without the most damaging of his three crashes, he would still be in the maglia rosa now.

For months, he’s had the prologue of the Giro d’Italia in mind and he started with the weight of being the hot favourite. Two days before the race, we had a press conference in the evening. As soon as it was over, it was time for dinner but Taylor jumped on his bike once again because he wanted to ride the course at approximately the same time as he was scheduled to race on Saturday. It wasn’t a necessity but he wanted his body to get used to this particular effort at this particular time of the day. It shows that he has a strong desire to make the most of his talent.

Taylor’s crash on stage 3 changed the scenario of the Giro. He was racing too much at the front and he was too close to the danger, people said. But he was right to be there because if there had been a gap on one second between two riders, he could have easily lost the pink jersey to Geraint Thomas. For instance, on stage 5 the time keepers applied a five-second gap, which is a lot compared to the differences created in prologues.

I’ve read that Taylor didn’t have to be up there because of the rule that neutralizes the last three kilometres. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Only in the event of a crash or a puncture or a mechanical, can a rider be classified with the same time as the group he was in. If the world of cycling wants better safety for GC riders and sprinters, I think that the last three kilometres should be neutralized in case of a bunch sprint on a flat road.

I know the arguments against this proposal. What if a rider attacks in the last kilometre and wins solo against the whole peloton? I return the question: when has that happened in the past twenty years? Not often on the flat for sure… Would there be less of a spectacle if everyone was crossing the line quietly behind the fifteen or twenty sprinters in contention? I don’t think so. The sprint on TV would remain the same and the crowd on site would see the other riders better.

Back to Taylor, he has impressed me a lot because of his maturity for a 22-year-old. He’s calm and he has a positive attitude. Even when he’s been unlucky, he keeps his morale high. He takes lessons from the difficult moments. He’s very well educated. It’s touching to see his mother following him at the Giro.

Had he been the real Taylor Phinney on Wednesday, we would have won the team time trial. But he had no strength in his legs. It’s surely the consequence of his crash. It happened at 70km/h because my SRM showed 60km/h further back. He went to two hospitals in Verona after the transfer by plane and then went to bed at 1.30am. On the rest day, he was only able to ride for fifteen minutes. On the morning of the TTT, he did nothing, he just came with us to recce the course.

Once the race started, at the first turn he took, I realized that he was the shadow of the real Taylor Phinney. Nobody can recover just like that from such a bad crash. At full capacity, he’d be the strongest of our team for a TTT. He’s the one able to make the whole team stronger. We lost a lot and we could have done better. Taylor was very disappointed for the team but he kept a smile on his face. He’s a good guy.

I personally have a hint of regret that things didn’t go better for us in the team time trial. I could have been closer to the pink jersey but it doesn’t bother me. My condition is good. There’s still a lot to do at the Giro and it’s a great pleasure to accompany Taylor in his discovery of the good and bad aspects of riding a Grand Tour.

Yours, Marco Pinotti
 

From Denmark to Milan

Published:

May 3, 22:32,

Updated:

May 3, 22:51

By:

Marco Pinotti

Pinotti hoping to settle a score in this year's final time trial

Hello from Denmark. I always enjoy the start of the Giro abroad like in Amsterdam two years ago. It's more interesting. The first part in a different country is like another race in itself.

I'm back to "my" national Tour after leaving on a sad note last year when I crashed badly with two days to go. I quit the race with an open account: my appetite for winning was intact prior to the final time trial in Milan. It was like walking out of a restaurant with hunger and the feeling of having forgotten something.

I've had to work very hard to come back to the level I had the day of my accident. I had a broken hip. Only at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco one month ago, I felt myself competitive again, but the delay was normal: three months off the bike means nine months for the recovery.

Here we are. I resume the Giro with the goal I couldn't reach last year: the closing individual time trial in Milan in three weeks time. I'd like to put a stamp on my bid for London. I want to represent Italy at the Olympic Games. I haven't spoken yet with the Technical Commissary Paolo Bettini but I guess that the final stage in Milan is crucial in his mind.

We also start with a time trial. It's 8.7km with thirteen curves on the menu in Herning, Denmark. One of my teammates, Taylor Phinney, is a favorite together with Alex Rasmussen from Garmin-Barracuda and Geraint Thomas from Team Sky. He's done 4.15 in the individual pursuit and he brings this ability to do well on longer distances as well. This is a double individual pursuit.

We love time trials at BMC. We've just won the team time trial at the Giro del Trentino. It has been a great confidence booster for us prior to the equivalent effort in Verona on stage 4. But it doesn't guarantee us to win again at the Giro. The distance is different and the participants as well. With all respect I have for all the contenders of the Giro del Trentino, the consistency of the teams at the Giro d'Italia is of a higher level. On paper, besides us, Sky, GreenEdge, Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Garmin-Barracuda are the strongest for the team time trial.

This design of the route reminds me so much of the 2010 Giro d'Italia that started from the Netherlands. It's like a tracing paper: prologue to start and team time trial after transferring to Italy. I went well two years ago [ninth overall]. During the final week of the Giro, I'd like to try and get a spot in the top ten again. It's going to be a test over my come-back from injury. Overall rankings come naturally. I wasn't part of the breakaway to L'Aquila on stage 11 two years ago. I want to come out of this Giro with a good condition.

It's London calling.

Ciao.

Marco

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What a difference a week can make

Published:

May 23, 2011, 05:12,

Updated:

May 23, 2011, 10:06

By:

Marco Pinotti

Bronchitis plays its role in unravelling my Giro

The first week of the Giro d'Italia started well for me and the team, and I was well placed overall for most of the first week.

Unfortunately my race fell apart after that and I lost any chance of the good overall result I'd hoped and trained hard for. I suffered on the last climb up Mount Etna and lost time in the GC. I could feel something was wrong and felt the first signs of bronchitis that night as we did the transfer to Termoli.

I hoped I'd get better quickly but it didn’t happen and I was forced to take antibiotics. They helped but it has affected my form and my legs. It's not easy to recover from a problem during the Giro and especially with a triple of mountain stages like we've faced this weekend. We've had three mountain finishes one after the other too, with 4000 metres of climbing on Saturday and then another 6000 metres of climbing on Sunday. Sometimes I ask myself just how difficult they need to make a stage. It's been hard for me and I can climb pretty well. It must have been terrible for some of the other riders who have had the courage to stay in the race instead of quitting.

I'm hoping I'll finally get back to my best after the second rest day because there are still some hard days to come in this Giro and I’d also like to target the final time trial in Milan. Winning it again would make up for all the suffering I've done in the last week.

We're happy at HTC-Highroad

Despite my problems HTC-Highroad has had a good Giro and we're happy with our results. We won the opening team time trial, I wore the pink jersey, Cavendish wore pink and he then won two other stages.

We were especially proud of how we did the lead out train in Ravenna for Cav's second win. Some of the riders in our Giro team are quite new to doing lead outs but Cav is great at getting everyone to raise their game and get it just right. He expects a lot but he gives a lot too. We notice when he's feeling good and is up for the sprint. The tension rises in the team but that makes us all give that little bit more and do things right. It's never easy but it's always worth it because Cav gives it everything to win and almost always does. Winning a race yourself is always special but when you work and a teammates wins, it's very satisfying and makes us even more united.

Cutting the Crostis

Sunday's stage was overshadowed by the polemics about the cutting of the Crostis climb. I personally think it was the right decision. The riders who saw the Crostis before the Giro said it was crazy to race on it and it was at the very limit of what is acceptable in a professional bike race.

I'm sorry for all the people who worked to make the descent safe and the tifosi who went up there to watch the race but racing can't be allowed to become a circus. We're not clowns. It's about the racing and the racing conditions have to be fair for everyone in the race. We all deserved to have sufficient mechanical support on the Crostis and if that wasn't possible, then we shouldn't have to race.

Rest day

After all the racing in the mountains, I can't wait for the second rest day. It'll be good to give the legs a rest and switch off for a day. I'll still ride on the road, or on the rollers if its rains, but we'll finally get a chance to catch our breathes, lick our wounds and get ready for the final week of the Giro. Contador looks pretty much unbeatable but there's still a lot of racing to enjoy.
 

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Pinotti: Testing times for the entire peloton

Published:

May 12, 2011, 22:28,

Updated:

May 12, 2011, 22:30

By:

Marco Pinotti

Contador and Scarponi have impressed me the most

The Giro started as well as I could have hoped, when we did a great team time trial and my HTC-Highroad teammates put me into the pink jersey, just like we had planned. But then Wouter Weylandt’s death on Monday has conditioned everything since. It has changed the state of mind of the race.

It’s a difficult thing to be involved with, and unfortunately I had already experienced a similar incident in 1999, when Manuel Sanroma was killed in the Volta a Catalunya. In a sense, both his accident and Wouter’s were workplace accidents, like those that can happen in any other walk of life, and I suppose we have to find the strength to go ahead. But I don’t feel it’s really my place to speak about something like this in front of a microphone or in public.

The day after was nice, we obviously couldn’t go ahead as normal on a day like that and it was fitting to pay tribute and to reflect. But now the best thing to do is to go ahead with the race, even if it seems hard. We riders are well aware of the difficulties and the dangers we face, and if you’re not able to stay concentrated then it’s probably best to go home. Everybody copes with a situation like this in his own individual way, and it’s certainly not up to me to judge what is the best way to respond.

Getting back to racing

On Wednesday, we returned to racing with a testing stage over the dirt roads to Orvieto. I’d done well last year at Montalcino and I’ve done the Strade Bianche enough times too, so I had an idea of what I was facing.

There were already people in difficulty on the climb, but the descent was probably even harder, as it was very steep, and there were sharp bends. A few times, we really had to take a lot of care. It was a stage that posed a lot of dangers but in the end, I was happy personally as I came through it well.

I felt pretty good, I was always looking to stay in front and find my own line through the corners. Everybody has a different perception of what is safe on a stage like the one to Orvieto. Some riders are more able over that kind of technical terrain but others are far less sure of themselves. So the best thing to do is to get out in front so that you can take on those corners and rough roads by yourself, and see what is ahead.

Missing out on the jersey

At the end, I knew that David Millar was in difficulty, although I didn’t really hold out too much hope of taking the jersey as there were a lot of riders up there capable of taking the time bonuses. Le Mevel, in particular, was a real danger, he’s going well.

As it turned out, Weening took the stage and the jersey, but I had confirmation that my condition is good. From a purely racing point of view, it’s been a good Giro for me so far. The weather has been nice too and hopefully the sun stays out as we move into southern Italy. It doesn’t rain too often down here, but when it does, the combination of rain and dust means that the roads become really treacherous.

Montevergine and Etna

The first part of the Giro is now ending and we’re moving onto the first difficult stage. Between now and Etna, I think Rabobank are going to look to try and control everything, defend the jersey.

My roommate Kanstantin Sivtsov is up there with me too, so we’ll try and stay at the front. It’s true that we’re both very close to the jersey, but there are so many bonus seconds on offer at the top of the climb to Montevergine that it will be tough for one of us to move into the lead.

Somebody who is sixth or seventh overall could win the stage and move ahead of all of us. I also think that Weening is a solid climber and he won’t be dropped easily. Montevergine isn’t really that kind of stage so I’d expect a decent sized group to finish together up there. If he loses the jersey, it will be because of time bonuses or a small gap opening in the group, but I don’t expect him to be dropped.

In my opinion, Sunday will be the first day that one of the overall contenders will make a statement of intent. The final climb to Etna isn’t the most difficult, but there are a lot of kilometres of climbing on the stage, so we’ll certainly see bigger gaps there.

Of the big guns, Contador and Scarponi have probably impressed me the most so far. I’d also pick out Kreuziger as a guy who is looking very sharp too. But looking at the stage to Orvieto, it was clear that all the favourites are in good shape and ready to race.

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I'm ready to race the Giro d'Italia

Published:

May 6, 2011, 09:06,

Updated:

May 6, 2011, 09:14

By:

Marco Pinotti

Let’s do it day by day and see how it is

So here we are at the Giro, and on paper, it’s one of the hardest ever editions. I haven’t actually checked the elevation gained over the course of the three weeks, but you hear huge numbers for some of the stages, like 6,000 metres of climbing.

I’ve already done a lot of Giri and I’ve done a lot of hard stages in that time, so I’m not so scared. My attitude would be, “Let’s do it day by day and see how it is.” But you can still see among the riders that some of them are scared by how tough the last week is going to be. That said, the level of cycling is so high now that I think everyone will be fit enough to take on this challenge.

The difficulty of the race will also depend quite a bit on the weather conditions. In the last two years, weather has played a really important role. When it’s either too hot or raining, it can change things a lot. Stages that can seem easier on paper can become more difficult according to the conditions, so we’ll need to be vigilant.

Resting after Romandie

Half of our team here did Romandie, so this week is a recovery week, just trying to keep the muscles loose with some training, but nothing too hard. On Monday, I did an easy day to recover, just two hours. Then on Tuesday, I had three hours with some motor pacing, but just two hours on Wednesday because I was travelling to the start.On Thursday morning we did three hours as a team. We did the first hour and a half on the road bike and then we did the second half of the ride was on our time trial bikes, and we did a few tests to make sure we get our turns right for the team time trial on Saturday. We didn’t quite go at full gas, but we did a decent pace.

The rest of the time, I’ve been trying to sleep as much as possible, both in the afternoon and at night. It’s almost like trying to store up on sleep. I try to sleep eight hours at night and then grab an hour or a nap in the afternoon, just to recover a little more. It’s something that you obviously can’t do in a race, so it’s good to try and take the opportunity this week. It’s just a small thing, an hour after lunch, but it all helps.

From Bergamo to Sicily

As an Italian rider, this is a special edition, because it is a celebration of 150 years of Italian unity. It is important for Italy as a country to find a feeling of being a country together, because there are many problems in this country. This year, with this 150th anniversary of the country, you can see that there is a real desire among the people to come together.

Even though we have many different regions, even though the nation has always been historically separated, and even though Italy might not have the best reputation abroad at the moment, it is important that people are looking to go beyond these problems and try to fix it together.

I think in the beginning, the celebration of this anniversary of Italian unification wasn’t seen as being that important, but now that it’s actually happening, you realise how significant it is. This year, if you go around the country and you see the flags everywhere, it makes you kind of feel proud to be Italian. For me, as an Italian, this Giro is even more important than usual.

I think the Giro is a particularly appropriate symbol of the unification of the Italy not just because the route covers the whole country, but also because of the things that it embodies. For instance, the Giro invites you to go out on the road and meet people. It encourages you to socialise and it brings people together. And this year, that element is more important that ever.

The start in Turin is also really significant. Not only was it the first capital of the united Italy, but this weekend, it is site of the annual celebration of the Alpini, the famous mountain brigades of the Italy army.

Last year the Alpini festivities were at the same time of the year in Bergamo, where I live, and there are hundreds of Alpini there. The Alpini is a very special corps, and every Italian is so proud of the Alpini, because when there is a particular emergency, they are there, all volunteering to help other people. Everybody is proud of this corps, so having this national meeting here in Turin makes this weekend even more special.

I have to say that it’s also a very special weekend for me personally, as I am from Bergamo. During the time of the unification of Italy, a thousand people travelled to Sicily under the command of Giuseppe Garibaldi in a bid to unify the country, and of that thousand, more than 200 were from Bergamo. So for that reason Bergamo is called the Città dei Mille, and of course I am all the more motivated by the fact that the Giro will visit Sicily as part of this year’s race.

Talk is cheap

First things first though, and right now my focus is on the team time trial on Saturday. At least ten teams have a chance of winning, because the shorter the route the more open it is. If it was longer, maybe 30km, then I am sure we would be in the top three, you could bet on it, because the team’s strength would be telling.

But on a course like the one on Saturday, which is quite short, you can’t afford to make any technical mistakes. Looking at it on paper, we have one of the strongest teams, but talk is cheap. Time to let the legs do the talking…

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