On the final stage of the Tour de Pologne, as rain began to teem down on the final, draggy ascent to the ski resort of Bukowina - and while most eyes were on Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and his surprise attack on race leader Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) - another rider attempted, briefly, to move in on the action.
For a minute, maybe less, the UAE Team Emirates rider Fabio Aru darted away from the group of chasers behind Yates and managed to put a few metres of rain-darkened tarmac between himself and the rest of the field. He then disappeared from view once more, sucked up by the chasers to complete the stage in an anonymous, if respectable, 10th place, and finishing the Tour de Pologne in an equally anonymous, if respectable, 10th overall.
This mini-attack, hovering just ahead of the peloton for long enough to remind us of his presence, before fading back into the general murk again, was a timely reminder that Aru is due to be heading to the 2018 Vuelta a España as one of the top favourites. But its brevity also reminded fans of just how unusual it has been to see Aru in the thick of the action so far this year.
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It’s been all but forgotten that Aru, now 28, was once the coming man in Grand Tour racing. Third at the 2014 Giro d'Italia behind Movistar's Nairo Quintana, then fifth with two gutsy uphill stage wins at the Vuelta a España in the same season, in 2015 Aru then upped his game to place second behind Alberto Contador at the Giro and then poleaxe race leader Tom Dumoulin at a rollercoaster Vuelta.
At that latter topsy-turvy Grand Tour, after Astana teammate and co-leader Vincenzo Nibali had dramatically gone home early for taking a tow from a team car, Aru grabbed the overall lead in Andorra, only to lose it to Joaquim Rodriguez, who was himself out-powered at the top of the GC by Dumoulin. However, Aru, despite having crashed in the final week and casting an utterly miserable figure at the finish in Avila, was finally able to turn the tables 24 hours later on Dumoulin in the last mountain stage for a stunning breakthrough Grand Tour victory, aged only 25.
Three years later, while Dumoulin has steadily moved on to greater things, Aru's career has faltered. In 2016, his Tour de France bid came off the rails completely in the final week because of illness, and a knee injury whilst training in Sierra Nevada then knocked him out of the 2017 Giro d'Italia before it had begun on his home island of Sardinia.
Under pressure to perform
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/aru-aims-to-save-his-season-at-the-vuelta-a-espana
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