Last year
Stefano Garzelli was close to sign a contract with Bjarne Riis and Team Saxo Bank, but decided to stay with Acqua e Sapone in order to finish his career with
the Italian team after Giro d’Italia. Unfortunately RCS Sport didn’t want to
give Garzelli the opportunity to do so as they left out Acqua e Sapone when they
handed out the wild cards.
Missing out
on the Giro was probably also the reason why Acqua e Sapone decided not to continue their
sponsorship in 2013 and therefore Stefano Garzelli now needs to find out if he
won’t to continue his career elsewhere or let this be his last season in the
peloton.
It’s no
secret that Garzelli’s wish always has been to end his career after the Giro,
which he won in 2000, but his brother and agent Marco Garzelli, tells me that
the current situation with the UCI point system makes it difficult to find a
team guaranteed a spot in the Giro next year.
“Stefano
had a lot of problems this year and therefore he doesn’t have many points. It’s
all very complicated right now. We will know within the next two weeks”, Marco
Garzelli tells C-Cycling.
Stefano
Garzelli wasn’t present at the Giro d’Italia presentation last month as he the
night before was in the middle of “one of the most horrible situation” of his
life. The extreme flood in southern Spain had Garzelli and his wife and kids fear
for their life as tried to escape the water in the middle of the night. “I was
supposed to be riding Giro di Lombardia, but my injury had me to relaxing on
the couch instead. I can’t even imagine what would have happened if my wife had
been home alone with the kids. This made me once again realize that missing out
on races aren’t that important after all”, Garzelli said after the incident.
Gianni
Savio and his Androni team are known for giving riders a last chance and after
saying good bye to José Rujano and being sure of a Giro invitation next year,
maybe this could be a place for Garzelli to end his career? Time will tell…
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