Gilberto Simoni: a new rivalry with Riccardo Riccò?

Two-time Giro d'Italia champion Gilberto Simoni had a strange dialogue with La Gazzetta dello Sport's Claudio Gregori the day before the start. Goals? "None." The favourite? "Not me." Who? "You know." The stages for attacking? "You know them." Later he gave a few more words, and there was a bit of irony when he mentioned who he considered the favourites "the young ones: Riccò, Cunego, Nibali."

More seriously, he stated that, although he hasn't won the Giro for the past three years, "in May I always have my best form." Simoni has a history of intra-team rivalries, having battled with Damiano Cunego in 2004 for the team leadership, and now it appears that Riccardo Riccò might be a threat for his leadership at Saunier Duval.

The 35 year-old Simoni confirmed that he wasn't at his best during the 25.6 km time trial, and his young team-mate was very strong. "I have suffered a lot," Simoni said. "I even missed some of my turns at the end. I was exhausted. On the other hand, Riccò was brilliant from start to finish, we even asked him to slow down." Shall it happen again in the mountains? "If Riccò goes better than me, I will not ask him to wait for me", Simoni said.

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"Pietro Algeri was right this morning when he emphasised that the race would be quite tough, that instead of analysing it, we should attack from the very beginning." Simoni continued. "Of course, I'm not very happy today because I arrived at the finish line exhausted. In the final stretch, I even missed a gear, and this meant an even greater effort. In spite of this, I must say that overall, we can feel satisfied. Tenth is no big deal but it's not that bad either if we take into account that we are ahead of teams everybody expected to be among the top-10."

Riccò, for his part, said that he still considers Simoni the leader. "I'm not worried about Cunego's advantage, because in time trials you're talking about seconds, but in climbs you get minute gaps. I felt good today, in the shape of my best days. If I could make the headlines in the Giro? I'll give it a try, but our big name is Simoni."