Stefano Garzelli struck back in Giro del Trentino to win stage 3. The 33 year-old rider from Varese won the stage to Toscolano Maderno ahead of Mikhaylo Khalilov (Ceramica Flaminia) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Fondital) after having cracked in the previous day's stage.
"I was very disappointed with Wednesday," said the Acqua & Sapone rider to La Gazzetta dello Sport. He is building for the Giro d'Italia, which he won in 2000, but found himself in difficulty on the day's first climb. "That same night I wanted to redo it and I notified the team that the next day I would attack. I want to win."
Yesterday, he took control. First he tried in an escape for about 90 kilometres that Cunego's Lampre-Fondital team let go. "But LPR and Tenax fought to take control. How some teams race I don't understand." Then Julio Pérez (Ceramica Panaria-Navigare) made a last minute bid for freedom, at four kilometres to go, gaining up to 55".
"I did not think I would be able to pull back Pérez," he continued. "Then when I took off at 200 metres and I saw that Khalilov and Cunego were near I had a moment of panic." However, Garzelli kept his cool to take the win.
"The win goes to my wife because we are always away from each other and in July she will make me a father for the second time. Luca will arrive." He thought back to Wednesday's stage. "At Predaia maybe it was a hunger-knock."
After the Giro del Trentino finishes he will travel to Tuscany for more racing and training in light of the Giro d'Italia.
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