FORLI, Italy (VN) — Alan Marangoni’s fan club — his parents and siblings and childhood friends and 30 more of the Cannondale-Garmin rider’s tifosi — got a wave and a smile as he flew through his childhood home, Lugo, with 30 kilometers left to race on Tuesday. Alessandro Malaguti’s fan club, decked in the colors of his Nippo-Vini Fantini team, got an even better show from their spot in his hometown, just five kilometers from the finish in Forli.
The two were part of a five-man breakaway that would, against all probability, make it to the finish ahead of a field of determined sprinters’ teams. They were not off the front by accident.
Each day the Giro d’Italia passes through the hearts of men who grew up here, rolling past childhood homes, on familiar training grounds, where friends and family line the course and cheer the local boy who made good.
Marangoni and Malaguti hatched a plan Monday, keen to be off the front for their home crowds.
“Me and Malaguti, he lives here, five kilometers [away]. I have a fan club at 30km to go, with my Dad and my Mum, 20 or 30 people were there. Yesterday, I asked Malaguti [to join me], because he had a big motivation to try today. I asked Bardiani for one man, and [Matteo] Busato [Southeast], because he was my ex-teammate in the amateurs. We wanted to try,” Maragoni said.
They’d make the breakaway together, they decided; they’d work together and maybe surprise the sprinters’ teams.
The plan worked, albeit not for one of the locals in the finale. The Italians in cahoots did escape Tuesday, and survived ahead of a charging field. Marangoni attacked, but was swept up and out-sprinted by a flying Nicola Boem, the man Bardiani CSF pledged to what should have been a doomed day off the front. Malaguti was third.
“I tried with 1.5 to go, but Boem was stronger. He closed the gap and won the stage. I can’t complain. I tried,” Marangoni said.
The result, though a disappointment, didn’t spoil the day for the Cannondale rider.
Marangoni, grinning under the awning of the Cannondale team bus, could hardly get through a three-minute conversation after the stage. Fans called the domestique’s name, teammates commended his effort, a woman wanted a photo, and he was happy to oblige. A young boy yelled, a flurry of Italian sped between the two, before a pat on the boy’s back set off a smile that could be seen from space.
For the local boy, a win would be perfection. But a good ride, a brave ride, well, that’s the next best thing.
“We tried, we tried. It’s life,” he said. “I dreamed a lot. The feelings were good, the gap was enough to go. We tried; we pushed hard, everybody. It’s a big disappointment, but oh well. You must try.”
The post Italians in cahoots send breakaway to success appeared first on VeloNews.com.
View the full article
