Ask anyone for their favourite to take the overall classification at this year’s Giro d’Italia, then Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) are likely to be high on their list. Probe a little further, though, and Miguel Angel Lopez will not be too far behind.
The 24-year-old turned professional with Astana three years ago, in 2015, and has been touted as a future Grand Tour winner for almost as long. Now in his fourth season, the Giro d’Italia is just Lopez’s third three-week race, but he already has a proven track record. After missing the entire first half of last season due to injury, Lopez emphatically bounced back to take two stage wins at the Vuelta a Espana and finish eighth overall.
Despite his breakthrough performance at last year’s Vuelta, Lopez says that he feels no additional pressure heading into his debut Giro d’Italia next week.
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“There is no pressure because I will be taking the Giro d’Italia day by day,” Lopez tells Cyclingnews, doling out a refrain he oft uses. “Obviously, I’m thinking about the general classification but I’ll be living it day by day. Every day I will enjoy it to the maximum. In the Vuelta a Espana, I went really well, and for this Giro, I have been working really well, but maybe things don’t go as well.
“It’s a race that I’ve always liked. The Giro is really beautiful. I’ve always watched it on television but I’ve never been there. I like it a lot, and let’s see what happens this year.”
Unlike last year, taking on the Giro this year meant that Lopez had to hit the ground running and, for the most part, he has done so. After a solid, if uninspiring, start at the Colombian national championships, he moved onto the Tour of Oman, where he won a stage and helped teammate Alexey Lutsenko take the overall victory. Lopez finished second himself. He went on to take third at the Abu Dhabi Tour before a slightly disappointing 16th at Tirreno-Adriatico.
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via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/no-pressure-for-miguel-angel-lopez-at-debut-giro-ditalia
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