In Richmond last Autumn, Davide Cassani oversaw Italy’s worst showing at a World Championships road race since 1950, but despite that disappointment, he is unwilling at this point to settle for anything less than victory in Saturday’s Olympic Games road race in Rio.
Since taking over the reins of the squadra azzurra in 2014, Cassani has lined up at two successive editions of the Worlds without a leader capable of shining on the courses in question, a situation reflected by Sonny Colbrelli’s 13th place in Ponferrada and Giacomo Nizzolo’s 18th place in Richmond.
On the demanding Rio de Janeiro parcours, however, Cassani can count on Vincenzo Nibali, who has tailored his season specifically around the demands of the Olympic Games. The Giro d’Italia winner raced the Tour de France with no general classification ambitions, but simply as preparation for Rio, and he lines out as one of the favourites for gold.
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“In Ponferrada and Richmond, I was conscious that I didn’t have a leader and a team suited to those kinds of parcours, but we’re contenders here, either for the win or a medal, which is already a great result in the Olympics,” Cassani told Gazzetta dello Sport. ”But no, I wouldn’t sign for a bronze medal now because I know I’ve got riders who can take Italy to the very top step of the podium.”
Winner of the Tour of Lombardy last year. Nibali is the obvious leader of the Italian team as he lines out for his third Olympic Games. The Sicilian also produced Italy’s best Worlds result of recent times when he placed 4th in Florence in 2013 and he seems better equipped than Astana stable-mate Fabio Aru for the demands of one-day racing.
“The team is ready for every eventuality with Aru as an alternative to Nibali in the leader’s role, even if he’s not a one-day rider. But then this isn’t any old one-day race,” Cassani said. “Then there are two climbers like [Diego] Rosa and [Damiano] Caruso who are capable of being in moves in the crucial phases of the race, and a rider like De Marchi who by his nature can guarantee a certain type of work right from the beginning.”
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