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| Luca Bettini / Cor Vos |
Alberto Bettiol, the great enigma of Italian cycling, underscored his quality by soloing to victory on stage 13 of the Giro d'Italia in Verbania. It was only the ninth victory of the XDS-Astana rider's career, but almost every triumph has been a spectacular one. “I don’t win much, but if I can win like that then I’m happy to win every two years,” he said afterwards.
Alberto Bettiol doesn’t win often, but when he does, he tends to win big. His first pro victory was the Tour of Flanders, after all, and his last was the Italian national championships two years ago. And when he wins at the Giro d’Italia, he tends to win in the most beautiful places and in the most sparkling style.
Five years ago, Bettiol conjured up a triumph of consummate class amid the rolling hills of the Oltrepò Pavese. He produced a long overdue but no less stirring sequel on the shores of Lake Maggiore on Friday, powering clear of the break over the top of final climb of Ungiasca and soloing to a flamboyant victory in Verbania.
Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) was the last man from the break to see Bettiol before he forged clear with a perfectly timed attack at the top of Ungiasca with 14km remaining. “I don’t see how I could have won,” the Norwegian champion confessed on the lakefront in Verbania afterwards. Nothing to be done.
It was one of those rare days when all the moving parts – physical, mental, emotional – clicked into place for Bettiol. These don’t roll around nearly as often as they should, but on afternoons like this, Bettiol is something close to unbeatable.
“I don’t win often, but if I can win like that, then I’m happy to win every two years,” Bettiol beamed when he had been ushered to the podium area after the finish.
Bettiol’s girlfriend Lisa, a native of the area, was at the finish line to greet him, and he explained afterwards that he had spent copious amounts of time in Piedmont ahead of the Giro reconnoitring the terrain on stage 13.
“It’s always nice when you win and especially when you win like this. My girlfriend is from here and that gave me an extra push to win,” said Bettiol. “It was already a victory just to start today and know that my family and my second family and so many close friends were going to be at the finish.”
Although Bettiol was armed with ample local knowledge, the home favourites were Filippo Ganna (Netcompany-Ineos) and Matteo Sobrero (Lidl-Trek). All three riders knew that making the break would be half the battle on a day like this, and Bettiol was the only one of their number to succeed.
“From the moment Pippo told me there was going to be a stage to Verbania, I figured that the hardest thing would be getting in the break,” Bettiol said. “And getting into the break wasn’t easy, because everybody was watching Ganna and Matteo. But when I did it, I said I had completed the second step…”
The third and final step wasn’t straightforward either, even if the break of fifteen was given considerable leeway by the peloton, building a lead in excess of 10 minutes by the time they hit the finale on the shores of Lake Maggiore.
Surprisingly, that generous buffer didn’t disrupt the unity of the move until they approached the stiff climb to Ungiasca, and the XDS-Astana rider knew exactly where his limits lay on that 4.7km ascent. Crucially, Bettiol also knew the camber of every twist and turn in the road from there into the centre of Verbania.
“When we were on the lake, I was expecting someone to attack before the climb, but it didn’t happen,” said Bettiol, who was happy to follow Leknessund at a distance when his attack broke up the front group on the ascent. “The climb was about surviving, but I knew how it went.
“I knew the last 150m were the hardest. I’d done this climb a lot because my girlfriend lives 50 metres away from there. I did it again and again. I turned around and I saw nobody was coming with me.”
Bettiol bridged up to Leknessund near the summit before flicking into the big ring on the false flat over the top to power clear of the Norwegian.
“I managed to trick these climbers a bit and then go on and win the stage. I knew the descent really well,” Bettiol smiled. “It’s all really beautiful and I’m just enjoying it.”
After the podium, Bettiol, one of the peloton’s most loquacious talkers, was ushered onto the stage to appear on Processo alla Tappa, RAI television’s post-stage analysis show. After discussing his long training camp at Mount Teide before the Giro, he confessed to certain misgivings about certain aspects of modern cycling.
“We live in a cycling made up of numbers and watts, but I think instinct won out today,” Bettiol said. “I like emotions and passion and instinct. Without those things, cycling wouldn’t be a popular as it is, but the human factor wins out.”
And as if to illustrate the point, Bettiol wore a broad smile when asked how he would celebrate his victory.
“Tomorrow, I’ll take a rest day,” he joked. “I’ll get dropped with the sprinters and enjoy the mountains of Val d’Aosta…”
- Barry Ryan
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