With an Olympic gold medal in his pocket, Elia Viviani now has his eyes set on his next big target: Milan-San Remo. The Italian has been working hard over the winter to readapt his body to the rigours of road racing and is fully focussed on the La Classicissima in 2017.
In his three previous appearances at the race, Viviani has been distanced in the finale and not featured in the final sprint, last year was his best result with 84th, but he believes that he can put any doubts to bed at this year’s race.
“In the Olympic Games, I think that a lot of people around me didn’t think that I could win the gold medal. Also for sure, some people can’t believe that I can win San Remo but I want to prove I can,” Viviani said at Team Sky’s Mallorca training camp this week, in an English that mixes his Italian thoughts with Team Sky pragmatism.
“The most important thing is I think I can win, the team around me thinks that I can win. I might not win the first time I try, but I’m going to work day by day, take all the steps I need to take and to be ready for this day. Sometimes you can work a lot and you don’t win. We have the bigger goal and now we work for that.”
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Viviani had originally been down to begin his 2017 race programme at the Tour Down Under but he and the team decided to start his season at the Dubai Tour to give him a few more sprinting possibilities. With that change in calendar, he requested the team allow him to race in Italian colours at the Tour de San Juan. The Dubai Tour will be followed by a block of training before the Abu Dhabi Tour, Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico and finally Milan-San Remo.
Viviani has been putting the hard miles in recent weeks to shed some of the muscle bulk that he built up in preparation for the Olympic Games. With Milan-San Remo just two months away he is including some longer stints on the bike to get used to the sheer distance of the Monument. Viviani has also been closely followed by his coach Rod Ellingworth, who the Italian thinks will help him take the step forward to achieve his biggest goals on the road.
“It is a passion for him,” Viviani said of Ellingworth. “He was on the motorbike today and he followed me in all that I did because now we have together another big goal to win San Remo or to win a stage in the Giro d’Italia. Getting back to winning ten races in a year is the goal. It is what I want to do and it can make me really happy. I think that he can make the difference on this side.”
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