Marco Canola: “I was about to realise a dream and I almost made it”

Bardiani-CSF rider within metres of his team’s second straight stage victory
marco canolaMarco Canola (Bardiani-CSF) came within just 200 metres of taking his first ever Giro d’Italia stage victory today, which would have been the second win for his team in as many days. The 24-year-old led the peloton around the penultimate corner of the 203km stage between Cosenza and Matera when the rider in second wheel behind him – Argos-Shimano’s Luka Mezgec – came down on a slippery white line, and brought the rest of the bunch to a standstill.

Realising that he was the only rider still in motion, with only a little more than a kilometre to ride, Canola struck out for the finish, but was caught by Mezgec’s teammate John Degenkolb before he could reach the line.

“I was about to realise a dream and I almost made it,” said Canola. “I was in front to help the team out of the penultimate corner when I heard the crash behind me. So I put my head down and gave it everything. I thought I could make it but the last few metres before the finish line were fatal.

“It is a great shame because we had a great race as a team, but we’ll definitely try again in the coming days.”

With Enrico Battaglin having taken a stunning victory the day before, moral and confidence were high at Bardiani-CSF as the peloton approached the technical finish in Matera. With several of the race’s fastest sprinters left behind on the 4th category Montescaglioso, 20km from the line – including Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) – the ProContinental ‘green team’ was confident enough to have taken control of the peloton in the final kilometres, working to deliver Sacha Modolo to the line.

Having been denied a chance to sprint, and with his teammate just missing out, Modolo was less than impressed with the way the stage finish unfolded.

“I’m very angry for what happened,” he said. “Today was a really suitable finish for me and I believed I could get a great result. With my teammates we worked very well for the sprint but the crash stopped our dreams.

“Tomorrow there’ll be a bunch sprint but I think that Cavendish will be too strong on a flat finish,” Modolo added. “However I hope to have better luck and achieve a good result.”