For much of this Giro d’Italia, Fabio Aru has adopted a defensive stance in his dealings with the press, downplaying expectations by prefixing most of his answers with a nervous laugh and the words “Ma sì, dai,” and deftly manoeuvring most interactions to an end with a vague “vedremo” – we’ll see.
It’s remarkable how victory softens inhibitions. After soloing clear to win stage 19 at Cervinia on Friday, moving ahead of Astana teammate Mikel Landa and into second place overall in the process, Aru seemed a man transformed when he settled into his seat for the post-stage press conference. The smile was readier, the shoulders were more relaxed and – by some distance – the answers were considerably longer.
Aru’s victory comes at the end of three weeks of oscillating expectations. After the doubts expressed about him before the race, he raised home hopes with an effervescent first week, but was already beginning to fade by the time he pulled on the maglia rosa on stage 13. In the third week, Aru conceded all hope of overhauling Alberto Contador and was overshadowed by his teammate Landa, but victory at Cervinia puts a very different sheen on his Giro.
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“To tell the truth, the pressure doesn’t affect me, it just gives me the strength and the focus to go on and do my work,” Aru said of his three weeks as Italian cycling’s Boy in the Bubble. “I tried to hide it but I went through some bad moments before the Giro but I held on and I have to thank my family and my team.”
It was unclear whether Aru was referring to the reported bout of dysentery that forced him to miss his final preparation race, the Giro del Trentino, or the accusation subsequently levelled against him by Greg Henderson – later retracted – which prompted him to initiate legal proceedings as the Giro began. All spring, meanwhile, his Astana team’s very place in the WorldTour remained in doubt due to the spate of doping cases in the set-up last season.
“I prepared well for this Giro, but I had some problems. But this stage win shows that I could handle it and it repays the faith of my team, who believed in me all winter,” said Aru, whose general manager Alexandre Vinokourov was on hand in Sestriere to witness the umpteenth show of startling collective force from Astana at this race.
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