In the first two stages of the Euregio race he is the best of the Italians with a 7th and 5th place. In 2021 the victory that changed his life, his stage in the Rosa race with arrival on the Zoncolan. “Before I was nobody, nobody recognized me, now when there’s a climb everyone waits for me”
Il Magnifico, as his countryman Alberto Tomba calls him with his usual lack of sobriety, gets off the skinny bus with a smile from here to there. Lorenzo Fortunato was the best of the Italians (seventh) in the first stage – entirely in Austrian territory – and improved (fifth) in the second, which brought the Tour of the Alps from Tyrol to Alto Adige, with the finish line on the Ritten Arena outdoor skating rink. This makes the climber from Castel de’ Britti the best of the Italians (eighth, 32” behind the leader Geoghegan Hart) in the general standings awaiting the stage. Il Magnifico has his name written on the pink seats of the chairlift that leads to Zoncolan, the climb that changed his life. Before he was a promising young professional, after that he’s the one who won the stage of the Giro on one of the fiercest climbs in Europe. The name is enough to scare: Zoncolan. “Before I was nobody, nobody recognized me, now when there’s a climb everyone waits for me”.
It changes
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It was May 22, 2021. Almost two years later Lorenzo is a young man who will turn twenty-seven on the day the Giro arrives in Lake Laceno. At first he thought he was one for the classics, then he began to think he had the numbers to rank in the Grand Tours. He says that the third week is the one he prefers: because the others are decreasing, but he always feels better. It also happened last year, however when he was unable to repeat himself: in the sense that he didn’t win another legendary stage, but he improved in the standings, going from sixteenth place in 2021 to fifteenth. “I went there to make the classification, to get to the top 10. But then a breakaway didn’t work, a crash at the start of the Giro compromised everything a bit, and the stage victory didn’t come. I also had a series of crashes after the Giro, at the end of the season I recovered and crashed again in Lombardia”. The seasons are like this, they go their own way. “I was faster last year than when I won on the Zoncolan, even if the results didn’t come. But I know that what you do comes back to you so I continue to work certain that the results will come, perhaps with a little more luck and some different racing dynamics”.
You go up
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Winter has been no different than usual. First there was a road trip in November, with his Veronica and a group of friends. Destination California: Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego. Then just one more high altitude period at Teide, and yet another in spring, finished a week ago. “I’m 55-56 kilos, ready for the Giro. I tried to get here as much as possible.” This is a ride he likes because it goes up all the time. He doesn’t like flat earth, “I never go there, not even to train”. When he is at home in San Marino, he trains with the others who are based there. “There are many of us, we make a good group. Ciccone, Velasco, Konychev, Tiberi, Fabbro, Consonni, Rota. On New Year’s Eve there were twenty of us, all at dinner at Consonni’s house. The best in the kitchen is Velasco, and then everyone brought something. I had the excuse that I arrived late, so I joined Carboni: he brought the truffle and I put in some cash”.
We run
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“I like the Giro, yes. I’m not going to make the classification, so 10 km more in the time trial or 20 less don’t change anything for me. There are the mountains that I like, especially from the second week onwards”. He hasn’t done any real recon, but it won’t be a blind date. “I know the Bergamo stage, even if it’s not a real mountain fraction, I know the Tre Cime di Lavaredo stage and some intermediate stages that aren’t suitable for me. At the end of the Tour of the Alps I will see whether or not to go to Asturias, it’s a race I like. I suffer from the cold because I’m quite thin but at the Gran Camiño I was sad that they removed the mountain stages where I could do well: I went there because there were long, hard climbs and in the end I found myself with 3km of climbing and that’s it ”. To be magnificent it was a little too little.
We grow up
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In Ivan Basso’s Eolo-Kometa (“he’s the one with details, who looks at everything, without him I’d be a rider like everyone else”) and Alberto Contador (“he gives me advice when we meet, but he was super, I I have to adapt them to me”) examples are everywhere. Lorenzo will be the captain in the Giro, the third of him. “This year I started it with good sensations in Andalusia and at the Tirreno, but without ever a full result, here at the Tour of the Alps and at the Giro I will try to achieve that result that I missed last year”. It is increasingly difficult to win in the new cycling of the many cannibals. Maybe it’s frustrating for a guy, even a great one. “I went to Andalusia and Pogacar won everything, to the Gran Camiño and Vingegaard won everything, to the Tirreno and Roglic won everything: there wasn’t much space, there never was a breakaway. Frustrating no but let’s say that when you run with them you have to interpret it differently, hoping they have a bad day or – easier – that they allow you to go on. But when you compare yourself with them you always have a high yardstick: arriving with them, or close to them, or at the wheel means going really fast. Sure, there’s less room to win. But the level is so high that when he wins, he’s worth more.”
April 18, 2023 (change April 18, 2023 | 18:01)
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