When Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates) was beaten into second place in the sprint at last year’s Giro del Veneto, the first person he encountered beyond the finish line on Padova’s Prato della Valle was race organiser Filippo Pozzato. “Ma dai, are they paying you to finish in second or what?” Pozzato called out playfully.
Trentin could do little but grin and bear the gentle ribbing of his friend, which only amplified when he managed to crash out of the winning move while riding uphill at the inaugural Veneto Classic four days later. The Italian took that teasing on the chin for 12 months until he came back and won the Giro del Veneto on Wednesday, dispatching Rémy Rochas (Cofidis) and Matteo Vercher (TotalEnergies) in the sprint in Vicenza.
“Finally, Pozzato cannot say I cannot win his races,” Trentin smiled behind the podium. “He is only organising these races for a year, but you know that we chat together, and all the guys took the piss when I didn’t win his race last year. I was second in one and I crashed in another, but now they have to shut up.”
Trentin’s victory here makes his life more bearable in at least one WhatsApp group and it also puts a different slant on what has been an ill-starred season. Although the Italian has now won three races in 2022, his campaign was blighted by misfortune. A heavy crash and delayed concussion at Paris-Nice ruined his Classics challenge, while a COVID-19 diagnosis denied him a start at the Tour de France.
“Every time I had great condition this year, I ran into problems,” Trentin said. “Just after winning Le Samyn, I fell at Paris-Nice and I had quite significant cranial trauma, so all of the Classics went down the drain, really. I came back, trained, and got back for the Tour, but then I got Covid, so I had to go home. Fortunately, it didn’t leave any after-effects, but it was my third time having to start from scratch this year.”
Trentin confirmed his form with a stage win at the Tour of Luxembourg, but he came away frustrated by his fifth-place finish at the World Championships in Wollongong, having sprinted without realising there were still silver and bronze medals at stake. The final stanza of his season, meanwhile, brought its own problems. After taking fourth at the Coppa Bernocchi, he was afflicted by asthma at Gran Piemonte and, by his own admission, “without legs” at Paris-Tours.
“The condition has arrived finally, and I’m happy I won today because last week was a bit depressing, really,” Trentin said…
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