Magrini cycling: “Vinggaard pulled our hair out. Italy at the World Cup with a cardboard bag. And Ghana…”

finished yesterday Tour de France 2023 And now it’s time To rate what was seen during the three weeks of the competition. for this reason Riccardo Magrini spoke today, Former contestant and technical commentator for OA SportAnd While cycling for Sport2Day, a weekly date hosted by Francesca Cazzaniga and broadcast On the OA Sport YouTube channel.

“It was a tour that did not disappoint – Magrini started -. It was all centered around the great Vingegaard-Pogacar duel and so it was until the time trial gave Dane an incredible blow.”

Technical commentator for Eurosport Then he added: “Before the time trial I thought Vingegaard would win, but certainly not with a huge gap between everyone. That’s where the whole hair ends, because you start all over again in the third week after resting with a bump like that and it’s hard to continue. In fact, the final blow came in Courchevel and the Tour there ended in victory.”

Vingegaard won proving that he is currently the strongest rider: “Jonas was very cold, as was also his team for some time who will now try to win the third Grand Tour in 2023 after Roglic in the Giro d’Italia and precisely Vingaard in the Tour. In the Grand Boucle, simply the strongest won, slaughtering a team that this year became more competitive than last year”.

Pogacar has dropped significantly in the past week, and one of the reasons is certainly the difficult approach to the Tour that the Slovenian faced due to the wrist injury he picked up in Liège-Bastogne-Liège: “Tadeg’s injury and a three-month layoff took a heavy toll on him. Among other things, he started very well with a third place in the first stage behind Yates. He managed the first two weeks, but in the third week the hasty program he introduced to get to the Tour de France went out. Let’s remember that before the Tour, he had only competed in two races at the Slovenian Championships, winning both the time trial and the road race with limited competition, while Vingegaard was able to prepare better with the Tour Dauphine, which he won.”

The focus of the speech then turned to the winner of the polka dot shirt, Italy’s Giulio Ciccone: “This success in the climbers’ classification is a confidence booster for him in how he won it. Then many say he didn’t win a stage and finished two hours away in the general classification, but that doesn’t mean anything. He was good at being in the right moments and winning. It must also be said that he was also lucky because if Felix Gall on the Courchevel stage had also thought about GPM, in addition to winning he could be a more difficult opponent, but let’s not forget that Giulio was lucky before In this season of maximum performance. In fact, he had made a great start, victorious and convincing, but then Covid denied him the possibility to take part in the Giro d’Italia. So he had to change his plans and went to the Tour de France with the aim of winning the polka-dot jersey. He did it and so congratulations to him.”

This tour gave Magrini great feelings: “I really liked the stage where Pogacar, after losing more than a minute to Vingegaard the day before, managed to separate the Dane and then win. It was a nice reaction, I liked how it clicked. Overall, however, I liked everything about the Tour, even for the Philipsen sprints. In my opinion it was one of the most beautiful Tours of the last 10 years.”

But alas, there were also some sad moments: “I was sorry to leave Cavendish, Because he showed he had two legs and was forced to retire due to a trivial fall. However, this earned him an unexpected contract renewal from Vinokurov and his entire staff. He’s said he’s going to stop, and instead Eddy Merckx’s record (for the most wins in his Tour career, ed.) he’ll try to surpass next year (at the moment both riders have 34 victories)”.

Then the Eurosport commentator spoke about the Italians: They have asserted themselves, not only with Ciccone. We’ve seen Bettiol and Trentin. We were few, but we noticed. We didn’t win, but Ciccone’s jersey healed the wound.”

With the Road Cycling World Championships approaching (5-13 August in Scotland), Magrini also covered this topic: “Those who leave the Tour can arrive more prepared for the next World Cup, but surely those who are safe at home will be there too and I am thinking of Evinpool. It will be a very delicate and challenging World Championship because the circuit is very demanding and there will be many top-level racers.”

“The Danish team, for example, fought and in my opinion Pedersen is one of the main favourites, also because he can handle bad weather. Magrini continued. Instead, we leave as usual with a cardboard bag and will try our best. When talking to my daughters, it seems to me that the approach is the right one: we are not going to start off the beaten path and we are going to try to play until the last minute.”

Finally, there was no comment on Filippo Ganna and his quest to win the World Time Trial: “I hope that Filippo can win the world champion’s jersey again. However, it will not be easy, because there will be competition. Evenepoel, for example, is one of those who will also aim to race against time. I think if Filippo is all right he will have no problem winning, but since we are superstitious, let’s cross our fingers and wait. However, I have great confidence.

Video interview with Riccardo Maghrini