• Classification This is how the Giro goes

As soon as the platoon crosses the Vomano River, six kilometers after the neutralized exit in Notaresco, a small town north of Abruzzo,

Stefano Allocchio

stands up in the steering car, sticks his head out of the sunroof and shakes the flag that begins a new stage of the Giro. There are days when that gesture hardly means anything, as cyclists who long for the getaway take it a little more calmly and let the kilometers go by. This Thursday is not like that, because the film is already written, it is not necessary to postpone its beginning.

A Bardiani, an Androni and an Eolo jump, representatives of the three teams invited to this Giro. There is no surprise whatsoever, as it should have been because of the codes that govern this type of stage, very flat and with few previous risks, in the first weeks of a Grand Tour. It is also common for a king of leaks to emerge among the squad in these early days. It is not intended by

Mark Christian

(Eolo), but by

Umberto Marengo

(Bardiani), but who at the moment

Simon Pellaud

(Androni)

succeeds

. With 164 of this Thursday, there are already 411 kilometers in flight divided into three stages.

Pellaud does not win (

Caleb Ewan does it

to the 'sprint' for the second time in this edition, with

Valter

still leading), of course, but he accepts the task of the day and the whole week.

After all, just a month ago I didn't even think I was going to be at the Giro, as Androni hadn't been invited.

The allegedly voluntary resignation of Vini Zabú, days before being suspended for a month for accumulating two doping cases in five months, opened the door for the Swiss to repeat his goal of the previous edition: to be the most combative runner of the Giro.

Your log cabin

And so, Pellaud can dedicate himself to what he has been preparing since winter in a wooden cabin near Medellín. You never know where everyone will find their place in the world and he found it in Colombia, almost by chance. In 2016, he was chatting with

Jarlinson Pantano

, his partner in the now-defunct IAM Cycling, about how hard it was sometimes to train in winter in his native Switzerland. Too cold, too much snow, too much discomfort for the bike even though there were many facilities for everything else.

Pantano then told him to try going to Colombia, where heat and cold are only a matter of miles and where winter is kind rather than hostile. Why not? Thought Pellaud, who at that time was a neo-professional who did not have enough money and who also saw the opportunity to save with such a radical change of country. All were advantages, but the main one he found when he arrived: he simply discovered a fascinating place to live.

He rented a cabin in a way, found love and began to chatter in Spanish with a paisa accent.

Around four years have already passed since, in which Pellaud divides his time between Colombia (during the periods without competitions in Europe) and his native Switzerland.

"Santa Elena has the best of both countries," he says about the place where he lives, on a mountain, surrounded by forests ... "The Swiss Colombian cyclist [sic]", he describes himself in his Twitter biography .

Everything is said.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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