The Pain and the Glory: The Official Team Sky Diary of the Giro Campaign and Tour Victory. Chris Froome
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34 seconds behind race leader Paolini. ‘You can gain hard-earned seconds here and there, and then you can lose time very quickly,’ said Brailsford, after confirmation of the results. ‘Ultimately, this first week’s all about staying in contention. This race will be won and lost in the time trials and the high mountains. Bradley’s in great shape, mentally and physically.’
Urán, who moved to second overall behind Paolini, added a further positive perspective. ‘Second for me doesn’t mean anything. Bradley and the GC guys are all up there. Long-term, it makes no difference. I’m not thinking about my position. I’ve other things on my mind – to work for Bradley. It’s a long race.’
Another day, another dramatic crash on the final run-in – this time caused by Luka Mezgec of Slovenia, who skidded across a slippery left-hander in the final kilometre – but Wiggins emerged unscathed and without loss of time. That was a relief at the end of a stressful day for the directeurs sportifs. All the teams had a similar game plan – to be towards the front going over the top of the first big climb. ‘We went full-gas up it for our GC guys,’ said Dario Cataldo, who was recovering from a severe stomach bug. ‘Luckily the descent that followed was dry, because it had been raining heavily before we arrived. Unfortunately Rigo punctured soon afterwards . . .’
Danny Pate took up the story: ‘That was a chaotic moment. We were going really fast. Sometimes directions are hard to take over the radio when you’re riding as hard as you can. The message was they didn’t know where Rigo was. So, I have to go from focusing on the role I’m concentrating on, to trying to find Rigo. I kept rolling . . . He appeared . . . And we both take our front wheels, but they won’t come out quick-release. I’ve never had that experience before! We’re smashing our wheels, and it was sorted pretty quick. Rigo was on and I gave him a push. The two Italian guys helped him back. That was my day over; I could take it easy to the end.’
The effort to get Urán back in the pack was exhausting, but Cataldo, Puccio and Zandio managed it 100m before that last ascent. Afterwards, Ljungqvist was quick to praise Cataldo’s stalwart efforts. ‘He’s done well to battle through his illness and hopefully now he’s coming out the other side.’
According to the team doctor, Richard Freeman, Cataldo picked up an infection early in the race. ‘It’s not unusual. When they’re training hard the immune system is diminished. The first week is actually the time riders are most likely to get sick. Training culminates, and tapers. Travel to the Grand Tours has its risks. They’re mixing with the general public, meeting people from all over the world. Dario was gutted. After months of training, it’s bad enough to fall off your bike – but to go down with a common-orgarden infection is frustrating. Because of the nature of the Giro, it was hard to get on top of his bug. Every day he was exhausting himself, four, five, six hours in the saddle. He was isolated and given his own room. The chef made special food, which I took up to him on a tray. He liked it so much that at 2.30am he called me, wanting more!’
Rain, punctures, crashes, illness . . . The sunny times on Ischia seemed a world away. ‘For sure, it happens every Grand Tour,’ said Dan Hunt, cheerfully. ‘There isn’t a team that doesn’t go through adversity. It’s a “here we go” sort of thing. That’s the kind of sport it is. Illness takes the edge off you, but you tend to get through it in a couple of days. We do express sympathy, but the guys are pretty brutal with each other. There’s a lot of banter and taking the piss.’
‘Our goal will be to keep Bradley, Rigo and Sergio out of trouble and allow the other guys, like Dario, to rest up as much as possible before the tough test tomorrow.’ So declared Marcus Ljungqvist on the morning of a day on which the sprinters’ teams were expected to control things from start to finish. It was a sound idea but, as usual, Lady Luck had other plans. The route hugged the picturesque Adriatic coastline before arriving in Margherita di Savoia, where two laps of the 16.6km Circuito Delle Saline saw the sprinters move into their most maniacal form of queue-barging just as space became tight, making crashes inevitable.
Wiggins, who famously hates the first week of a Grand Tour, had yet another early scare on a fourth consecutive nerve-shredding day. First, he suffered a mechanical problem that forced a bike change. Just as he was settling back at pace, in position on the first of the two laps of the finishing circuit, he found himself barricaded behind a crash and an extensive tangle of bikes, spinning wheels and ripped Lycra. Aided by his team-mates, he managed to hitch back on to the leading group – which had slowed by convention, albeit somewhat reluctantly – and remarkably ended up leading the pack with 3km remaining.
It was an admirable show of resilience, but for road captain Knees it was an equally fretful experience. ‘Bradley needed a bike change minutes before that crash, so although he wasn’t involved in it, he did get stuck behind it,’ the German confirmed. ‘The boys did a brilliant job pacing him back on, but I got caught up the road. It was so loud in the bunch that I couldn’t hear over the race radio what had happened behind me until it was too late. When I found out, I went straight to the front and told the FDJ and Quick Step guys to stop pulling. They agreed to ease off a little, but the pace was still high, so the boys had to ride hard to bring Bradley back on. They did a great job, and I then moved him towards the front to keep him out of any further trouble. This was the last sprint day for a while, so that’s why it was so hectic. We knew we had to stay safe at the front. In the end we did that, so we’re all happy with how things turned out.’
Wiggins was relieved to tick off another stage with his overall title hopes intact. He was one of the first to congratulate former Sky team-mate Mark Cavendish, who – at last – had enjoyed a textbook lead-out from his new team, Omega Pharma-Quick Step. Cav went on to dedicate his win to the memory of Belgian rider Wouter Weylandt, who had crashed and died exactly two years ago to the day.
Ljungqvist was left relieved, if a tad rueful, about the difference a few hours can make to his day-by-day Giro overview. ‘That was a fantastic team performance today and everything worked out in the end. As soon as Bradley needed a new bike, there were seven riders around him and Christian was able to slow things down up the road. It took some hard work to bring Bradley back on, but these guys will recover tonight ahead of a tough day tomorrow.’
There is no such sentiment as ‘Thank God it’s Friday’ in the professional cyclist’s week. Nothing about the profile (a continuously testing route, marked by four tricky categorised climbs and an irritating series of small, steep ramps) or the conditions (heavy downpours and greasy roads) suggested that Friday 10 May would