The emotions of a great day of cycling, of a great day of #GirodItalia 🇮🇹💞 Thanks @mircomaestri9, so proud of you ❤️ And thanks also to you, @alafpolak1 🫡
Mirco Maestri enjoys brutal but dream-like day at Giro d'Italia: "It was wonderful to be able to face this breakaway with a champion like Alaphilippe"
CyclingFriday, 17 May 2024 at 13:41
Julian Alaphilippe took a stupendous victory to return to the top step this Thursday at the Giro d'Italia, but his victory would not have been possible without Mirco Maestri - the unlikely outside for the day who rode with Alaphilippe for 115 kilometers before watching the Frenchman go on the final climb of the day.
“It was wonderful to be able to face this breakaway with a champion like Alaphilippe, whom I admire a lot," Maestri said in a press release issued by the team. "I will always remember him. We agreed not to attack each other, to understand each other and to make our way. I would have loved to have won a stage that we had marked out, although it was difficult because there were many riders who were looking to win."
Maestri's chances of taking the win were always slim against the former World Champion, but the Team Polti Kometa rider had strong resistance to work with Alaphilippe for several hours as the two kept the almost three dozen riders who also made it into the breakaway of the day. "I gave everything I had, it was a very hard day, possibly the hardest of my life," the Italian described. But he enjoyed a day out with one of his idols which will live on in his career:
"Alaphilippe helped me and encouraged me to keep going, although on the last wall I couldn’t follow him. I think it was really difficult to beat him, but we got the best possible result," he says. At the end of the day he was still satisfied with what he considered to be the best possible outcome on the day: "When he came to thank me at the finish line, I congratulated him on his victory”.
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