Italian Champ aims for Worlds
Italian Champion Giovanni Visconti will meet with the other national team members September 20 in Milan and depart to the World Championships in Australia if all goes according to plan.
Yesterday at the GP Camaiore, he showed he is fighting for a place on the team. He made an escape group of six men and narrowly missed the win to Slovenian Kristjan Koren (Liquigas-Doimo).
“Of course, if I had won it would have been better. But it’s OK too because my best condition is approaching,” Visconti told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Being able to attack on the uphill in a race this hard is a good sign.”
National sports director, Paolo Bettini, was at the finish line and watched the race.
“After I finished, he complimented me, but said that you need to know your rivals… And I underestimated Koren. I did not even know he was Slovenian,” Visconti added.
“He told me to remain calm and try to have a race programme that will allow me to arrive in top for the World Championships. I will do everything possible not to let him down. Basically, after winning the national championships [June 26], I pulled the plug for a couple of weeks.
Visconti previously won the national title in Genova three years ago, 2007, and held the leader’s jersey at the Giro d’Italia for eight days in 2008. Earlier this year, he won two stages and the overall at the Tour of Turkey.
In June, he won a stage of the Tour of Luxembourg and finished second overall at the Tour of Slovenia.
“I am getting there, but not yet at my maximum. In the sprint, for example, my legs were not as explosive as they are in my best days. For Melbourne, though, there is plenty of time to find the ideal condition. It is on that day that I must be at my top, because the course is hard, very hard.”
Bettini is observing the races to gather information and to help him select the nine men to fight for the World Championships title on October 3.
This year’s World Championships is the first point-to-point course. It will start in Melbourne and travel west to Geelong, 85 kilometres. Once in Geelong, the professional men will race 11 15.9-kilometre circuits, each covering The Ridge climb (120m), for a total of 259.9 kilometres.
Bettini saw the course with Visconti, Filippo Pozzato, Luca Paolini and Daniele Bennati last month. He will use the information gathered in Australia and from this month’s races to help him select the national team by mid-September.
He knows Visconti wants a place on the team.
“I told him my race programme,” continued Visconti, “Trittico Lombardo, then Melinda, Giro del Veneto and the Tour of Britain, but I don’t think I will finish it because I want to race in Prato on September 19. The next day the national team will meet in Milan. I hope there too.”
Visconti raced his first World Championships as a professional last year in Mendrisio, Switzerland. He helped team-mate Damiano Cunego finish eighth.