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Enrico Gasparotto: 'Gaspa' back as team-leader in Giro
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Enrico Gasparotto – maglia rosa for two days the 2007 Giro d'Italia – is back to face another three-week tour of his home country. After switching teams this winter, the 2005 Italian champion has leadership responsibilities within Claudio Corti's Team Barloworld. Expect 26 year-old 'Gaspa' to feature in stages with sharp and fast finishes, all the while revealing his adventures here on Cyclingnews.
(For more on Gasparotto read Growing up.)
Rest Day - Monday, May 19
Overcoming obstacles
Hi guys!
There are some who believed for sure that I died because I stopped to write my diary, but you can't imagine how hard and how busy this first week of the Giro d'Italia was. The third stage was so-ooo difficult for us because our leader [Mauricio Soler -ed.] was suffering from his maybe broken hand and we stayed all day closed to him. On the flat with stronger English guys, then Cardenas and I pushed him for all last climb on pavè... ah, I arrived at the finished line as tired as after a mountain stage!
That day was so long because we moved to solid ground by boat – three hours on the boat all riders together! It was nice only because we could talk with other guys from other teams – about everything but cycling...hihihi! And all we all agreed about one thing; too many transfers between one stage to another one. That evening we arrived in hotel at 11p.m. So late and we have no time to recovery our energy!
This beginning of the Giro was so strange. A lot of breakaways survived to the finish line! So there weren't many possibilities for me to get a good result. The only one was the stage that finished in Tivoli close to Rome, but unluckily I had the worst day of 2008 season – bad legs without power. Maybe because it was the first hot day of this year, maybe because the beginning of this Giro was so fast... but it was only a day!
Yesterday I felt better and it sounds good for the next stages, in particular for Wednesday where I want to try to get a good result! For team Barloworld today is an important day: our leader Soler is getting another x-ray at a hospital together with my other team-mate Bellotti, who crashed two days ago. This evening we will know if they can continue the Giro with us or not – we hope so! Because everyone is important on the team to maintain a good humor; a positive mentality after this not so happy beginning! But the Giro is so long... so I must continue to believe in good results for me and also for our compact team Barloword. Now I must go to massage - another very important moment for every rider. It is a time to relax our muscles, and a time to talk about our life, our problems, our ideas - to the masseur. I promise that I'll write you every day!
Ciao
