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| Gianni Savio at the Giro d'Italia 2012. |
Team owner
of Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela and Giro Expert on this site last year, Gianni Savio, here gives his
view on the first part of this year’s Giro d’Italia. The Androni
team have been very active the last couple of stages and with a second place to
Fabio Felline on Stage 4, Gianni Savio is satisfied with his team so far.
“I think we
can be very satisfied with what we have done in this first week. Our philosophy
is always to honor the race and the last three days [stage 3- 5] we have had a
rider in the big break. No other teams have done that. Felline was close the
other day and overall, we are racing very well. Today (Stage 6) we change the
tactic. Now it’s all about Mattia Gavazzi. We hope and believe he can make the
podium in this stage, even though we also now that there are many good
sprinters in the race”.
Looking at
the overall classification, team leader Franco Pellizotti now sits in 25th
position and Gianni Savio hopes the Italian Champion won’t lose too much time
in the demanding time trial on Saturday.
“So far
Pellizotti has been doing fine. He is waiting for his terrain, the mountains,
and we still hope he will make Top10 overall. He is not a time trialist, but I’m
sure he will defend himself well on Saturday. If he can lose less than three
minutes to Bradley Wiggins, I think it’s a good result. This time trial will
give us the first photo of the Giro and it will be very interesting to see the
fight between the two big favorites, Wiggins and Nibali.
Also, our
young rider Diego Rosa is doing very well. He’s in a good position in the
general classification [34th - 2:24 min down] and he’s still a
contender for the white jersey”.
In today’s
Gazzetta dello Sport there were rumors of Fabio Felline and Franco Pellizotti
leaving the team next year. According to the Italian paper, Felline has been talking
with Quickstep and Cannondale but for now, it’s only rumors.
“I read the
article this morning and I asked him [Felline] about it. He told me; “No, no,
no, no. It’s not true”, so I think it’s just journalists trying to make news”,
Gianni Savio explains.
Last year I
broke the news that Gianni Savio was thinking about upgrading to a World Tour status within the next couple of years and that plans is still intact. Still,
Savio makes clear that he thinks that the system needs to change.
“I think
the philosophy always should be to have a good level of cycling. Cycling must
not only be a business, but a sport with a business. Right now, we see a lot of
financially powerful teams, but without any real results. I think we should
have a First and Second division, like in football for example. It shouldn’t be
that just because you have a big budget you are on the World Tour. You need
results too”.
Gianni Savio’s
Wold Tour project has to do with the Venezuelan government and he think that
they will increase the budgets for the coming seasons. Main sponsor Androni
also shows that they want to continue the partnership.
For more
Gianni Savio, stay tuned for the big preview of Stage 7 where Savio will give
his thoughts on a very difficult and leg breaking day in the Giro.
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