Thursday, May 9, 2013

Giro d’Italia update with Gianni Savio

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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