Diego Ulissi, in the UAE Team Emirates noble class
It doesn't take much digging through the UAE Team Emirates riders' track records to distinguish that the UAE Team Emirates' Diego Ulissi is not just another one. As he told us Joxean MatxinTeam Manager, at the beginning of the year, "Diego is, after Pogačar, our rider with the most specific weight for his quantity and quality of victories.".
This was commented by the Biscayan coach those days when Diego Ulissi was in the news for his health problems, a myocarditis that needed some time of rest, lowering the piston, to return with more strength. These weeks he has enjoyed a well-deserved and beloved prize, his beloved Giro d'Italia..
"I'm feeling great again. To say that I'm back is already a kind of victory," the Italian began. A pleasant feeling from which he extracts a very simple reading: "Never take anything for granted. I've always appreciated the fact that I've made my living on a bicycle, but just because it's been going on for so long doesn't mean I take it for granted. The feeling of coming back, of racing, of being with my teammates again, means a lot.. You can be sure of that," Ulissi adds.
On his return with UAE Team Emirates, he has become acquainted with the product of GobikIt's a very comfortable garment that responds very well on days with several hours in the saddle. I really appreciate that.
Back at the Giro d'Italia
The work after the obligatory stop has brought him back to the race he loved, the one he watched and dreamed of as a child: "As an Italian I grew up watching the Giro, imagining what it would be like to be in it. I've been able to taste that feeling, and I feel privileged".
For the Italian race he admits that "I arrived well, with some competition and in good shape. I scored some stages, but just the fact of having been in the race is a kind of triumph."
Among those stages the one in Bagno di Romagnain the middle of the three weeks, looking for the good breakaway, but without the punch that in the past had brought him up to eight stage wins. Add to that, getting to the front at Sega di Ala, the day Bernal had such a bad time, and the next day at Stradella, when Bettiol flew.
The experience of winning the Giro
Diego Ulissi didn't stop at the first win, his list of victories has grown to eight, a crazy list of victories that "I've been lucky enough to add to other successes in WorldTour races. However, the Giro is something else, the most special race. To win it is an immense honor, I grew up watching the race and to win a stage is a dream".
If he had to choose: "The first one is always very special, because it's a novelty and what it means for your career. Last year, however, with the Giro in October because of the pandemic, I got two stages that mean a lot to me, because of how bad we had it during the hardest part of the pandemic."
It's been ten years since his first victory, in Feltre, a nest of mountains in the Dolomites, when he arrived in a breakaway with Pablo Lastras and Giovanni Visconti. Since then he has added another seven victories in his beloved Giro, chaining editions with his name on the palmares, from 2014 to 2016 and achieving a double last year, in the autumn edition of the corsa rosa, from Agrigento, almost at the start, to Monselice, all very much his own victories, in a selective sprint.
To be an Italian who shines in the Giro is to close the circle.Of course there are people who recognize me in the street, it's very nice. It's a reward for what you do, but not the ultimate goal. After so many disappointments, such a rare twenty-twenty and the winter scare, Diego is on the way to being the Ulissi we all know.
PhotosBettiniPhoto / Fizza Photo
