Groupama-FDJ pro Laurence Pithie has defended himself strongly from accusations of dangerous racing in the Giro d’Italia on stage 11, saying simply, “everyone’s on the limit and you have to take risks to be there".
Currently riding his first-ever Grand Tour, the 21-year-old had a tough first week as he overcame a series of nagging, pre-race minor injuries, but gradually overcame his difficulties to net a fourth place behind repeat winner Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek).
However, the New Zealander then was subject to accusations of dangerous racing in the finales by Hugo Hofstetter (Israel-Premier Tech) on Eurosport, with the Frenchman even calling on the UCI to sanction risky manouvres in races.
Pithie though, kicked back hard against the accusations, arguing that racing had innate risks and he was no more culpable of taking risks than anyone else. He implicitly criticised Hofstetter for calling him out in public.
“At the end of the day it’s racing, it’s super dangerous, everyone’s on the limit and you have to take risks to be there, and everyone’s in the same boat,” Pithie told Cyclingnews.
“For sure sometimes I’m on the limit, everyone can say their thing. I could name 10 guys who did something dangerous, but I’m not going to go cry about it on live TV.”
Pithie himself is continuing to show strongly in the second week of the race, following up his fourth place on stage 11 by forming part of the second chase group behind stage winner Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) on stage 12.
“I had a bit of a rough start to this Tour but thankfully things have progressively gotten better and better and now I’m feeling really good,” the 2024 Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race winner and Paris-Nice leader said.
“I had a few little injuries that popped up, nothing too serious. But in a race like this, you have to be at your best if you want to perform.
“I was quite worried because I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to be in the race. But I’m still here and trying to chase that win.”
The improvement in Pithie’s condition has enabled the young New Zealander and the team to change their targets for him in the race, he said, upping the bar on what he wants to achieve between here and Rome.
“We were taking it day by day but now for sure the goal is to get to the end and try and still win a stage,” he said “There are still a few opportunities for me.”
Pithie has never raced for many days combined prior to taking part in this year’s Giro, so as he said, while he is feeling increasingly ambitious, he’s aware this is a very new experience for him and he’s keeping his feet on the ground.
“This is unknown territory now, the longest race I’d done before was 10 days long, so each day is an adventure, a question of seeing how I cope with the fatigue. But so far so good.”
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