Five days after he took the pink jersey in the team time trial in Turin, Marco Pinotti showed that he is determined to try to get it back when he rode strongly on the stage to Orvieto. The HTC Highroad rider drove the pace after the-then race leader David Millar got into trouble, and finished with the main group of contenders at the end.
He lost out by a small margin, though, ending the day second overall behind the stage winner, Pieter Weening.
“I heard that I am two seconds behind,” the friendly Italian told VeloNation a couple of minutes after the finish, stopping on the uphill drag after the finish line to catch his breath and to give his account of the stage. “It is a pity I don’t have the jersey, but the form is here.”
Many of the general classification riders are concentrating on saving form for later in the race. Pinotti finished ninth overall last year and aims to once again take a top ten overall placing, but he said that he wants to seize opportunities which come his way and doesn’t mind spending some energy to do so.
“I prefer to take the jersey [rather than hold back]…that is always something that would be a big goal for me,” he said. “I don’t have the chance to be on the podium or in the top five, so if I have to spend some energy to get the jersey, I will go for it. I am not racing conservatively…today I pulled 20 kilometres alone because I wanted the jersey.”
Pinotti’s other goal prior to the stage was to stay out of trouble. The dusty, slippery roads of the strade bianche lay ahead of the riders and he admitted that he had concerns.
“There are some days here in the Giro when you are scared in the morning,” he explained. “One was the other day because of the downhill [the stage to Rapallo], and the other was today.
“It wasn’t like last year where the course was more selective, so we could enter the gravel section with the best riders [ahead]. This year I knew it was a fight, but I had good legs in the first section, which was uphill, so it was not a problem.
“There was a big fight to be there in the beginning. In the other section, I was left without team-mates and I heard that the pink jersey [David Millar] was 20 seconds behind. I tried to go, but I had no team-mates at the time. I said, okay, it is better to pull in the front, so I pulled the beginning of the section.”
Millar later got back on, but cracked on the final climb and would go on to lose over two minutes. Pinotti knew things would be close with Pieter Weening on the attack and attempted to get closer to the lone leader near the end.
“With one kilometre to go I tried to go with the Spanish guy Arroyo, but it was pretty much controlled. I was hoping that I or [Kanstantsin] Siotsov would get the jersey, but it was just tactical at the end.”
The HTC Highroad duo started today’s sixth stage just two seconds behind Weening, and will seek to do something in the days ahead. Pinotti will aim for the Maglia Rosa once again, and is encouraged by how he is feeling.
“I think I am at the same level as last year. I think the race is a little big easier this year, the first ten days, as it is super hard at the end,” he said. “We will see…many riders are here in the peloton, we will see in one week [how things stand]. The main goal is to stay out of trouble and wait until the last week.”