The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Juan Pedro López, new leader of the 2022 Giro d'Italia

2022-05-10T21:59:05.297Z


The 24-year-old cyclist finished second in the ascent of Etna and became the first Spaniard to wear the 'pink jersey' since Alberto Contador in 2015


They went up Etna on a mule to pluck the snow, property of the bishop, and transport it to the port of Trapani, where it was bought by fishermen, who needed it to preserve fish, or pastry chefs, to make ice creams and slushies.

You get in a car to ski down the slopes of its crater, always on fire, and you get on a bicycle to fly down, feeling the freedom of the wind on your face, or to touch the glory of the Giro d'Italia, which is a pink shirt and how well it suits Juan Pedro López, a cyclist from Lebrija, Seville, where Juan Peña and Domi Vélez's good bread.

He finished second in the stage at Rifugio Sapienza, bordering on 2,000 meters, almost touching the snow, and the very bright sun did not deceive the cold.

He is beaten by the German Lennard Kämna, his breakaway partner, in a forged heads-up match –both cyclists have already talked about it, the old agreement, for you the stage, for me the jersey-, and despite this they are ready of colliding in the last curve, very closed, and the Sevillian punches, in rage, fury, joy, the handlebar of the bike.

"They told me in the car, that it was going to be a pink jersey [the leader, Mathieu van der Poel, has already stayed in Biancavilla, at the gates of Etna, and reaches 23 minutes], but I did not believe it", he says, and emotionally he bursts into tears.

“I have had very difficult times.

The son of a friend, then, is in heaven, and nothing [and he wipes his tears with the cuff of his rose],

🚴🇮🇹🇪🇸 The Spaniard @juanpelopez97 will wear pink!!



Second on Etna behind Kämna.

Bravísimo!#GiroEurosport #LaCasadelCiclismo pic.twitter.com/oZP4iWoZVD

– Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES) May 10, 2022

López, Juanpe for fans, is 24 years old, 1.70 meters, 60 kilos, he is pure will and one of the Spanish cyclists who come to fill a very deep void and has worked hard for glory, which fills him so much, or more, like the emotion he felt when his Betis won the Cup against Valencia.

He did everything with intelligence and a coldness that seems impossible in his excited voice at the finish line, when he only manages to say that he does not believe it, that it has taken him 10 minutes to assimilate it and that he only thinks about enjoying the pink, enjoying it every kilometer that seen it.

"And when I have to work for my bosses, Ciccone or Mollema, well I'll do it, it's my job," says the cyclist from Lebrija who started out as a cyclist in the youth team organized by Alberto Contador and has been running for three years with the Trek de Luca Guercilena.

“Everyone already tells me that Contador was just the last Spaniard to wear the pink jersey, when he won the 2015 Giro, and also that Contador also wore pink on Etna in 2011, but at that time I did not follow cycling, only football, I was 13 years old.

Then I've seen it all on videos."

Juanpe sneaks into the great escape, 14 cyclists, at the exit of the Avola beach, where the almond trees and the Avola ink, and its wine, which the Greeks already enjoyed in Syracuse.

Etna is still nothing more than a great blurred and uncertain mass, a great curtain behind Catania, and its houses are crowded on its slopes and have the color of the ash that regularly rains when the volcano burns.

The fugue blurs as the road gets steeper, so far from the top still, and the lines of the volcano lighten, and are defined by cyclists by their clean roads, and the dry lava slope is blacker than their asphalt, and the basalt brick walls that are reborn every year, like nature, pines, new oaks, and the graffiti that sprouts every morning like on the walls of the train tracks, and the cold wind in the face.

Some of the escape look back,

Others look ahead.

They want to win the stage.

Juanpe is one of them.

He has ideas as clear as the lines of the volcano.

Let everyone move, declare themselves, spend themselves and only when the road gets steeper, and reaches 14%, with 12 kilometers to go, does it leave the protection of the group, there are only six of them, survivors of the escape and he launches determined for Oldani, one who attacked too soon and is left dry.

Juanpe advances alone.

He already thinks about the stage victory, about the pink jersey, about everything.

“I attacked there, in the hardest part, when the director advised me to do so,” says Juanpe.

"I didn't know the climb."

The director is Adriano Baffi, Italian from Cremona, who is wise and veteran.

And only when loneliness weighs him down does Juanpe receive the help of Kämna, a 25-year-old German who came to cycling brilliant and lively,

that he beat Carapaz a stage in the Tour at 23 and that at 24 he felt the emptiness and the burden of pressure.

He has so much talent that no one was satisfied with anything he did.

"I spent a year without running, looking for myself," he says.

“I discovered that I liked cycling too much, that I just had to change my focus.

I no longer think about winning the general of the greats.

I have much more fun looking for the stages.”

To look for the stage he goes in search of Juanpe seven kilometers from the finish line.

He hits it at 2.5.

Both support each other, protect each other.

They talk.

When there is a prize for everyone, no one refuses to collaborate.

It's the usual cycling.

For one the stage.

For the other the jersey.

And one sentence sums it up, says Juanpe: "I think this is one of the happiest moments of my life."

He has so much talent that nobody was satisfied with anything he did.

"I spent a year without running, looking for myself," he says.

“I discovered that I liked cycling too much, that I just had to change my focus.

I no longer think about winning the general of the greats.

I have much more fun looking for the stages.”

To look for the stage he goes in search of Juanpe seven kilometers from the finish line.

He hits it at 2.5.

Both support each other, protect each other.

They talk.

When there is a prize for everyone, no one refuses to collaborate.

It's the usual cycling.

For one the stage.

For the other the jersey.

And one sentence sums it up, says Juanpe: "I think this is one of the happiest moments of my life."

He has so much talent that nobody was satisfied with anything he did.

"I spent a year without running, looking for myself," he says.

“I discovered that I liked cycling too much, that I just had to change my focus.

I no longer think about winning the general of the greats.

I have much more fun looking for the stages.”

To look for the stage he goes in search of Juanpe seven kilometers from the finish line.

He hits it at 2.5.

Both support each other, protect each other.

They talk.

When there is a prize for everyone, no one refuses to collaborate.

It's the usual cycling.

For one the stage.

For the other the jersey.

And one sentence sums it up, says Juanpe: "I think this is one of the happiest moments of my life."

I no longer think about winning the general of the greats.

I have much more fun looking for the stages.”

To look for the stage, he goes in search of Juanpe seven kilometers from the finish line.

He hits it at 2.5.

Both support each other, protect each other.

They talk.

When there is a prize for everyone, no one refuses to collaborate.

It's the usual cycling.

For one the stage.

For the other the jersey.

And one sentence sums it up, says Juanpe: "I think this is one of the happiest moments of my life."

I no longer think about winning the general of the greats.

I have much more fun looking for the stages.”

To look for the stage, he goes in search of Juanpe seven kilometers from the finish line.

He hits it at 2.5.

Both support each other, protect each other.

They talk.

When there is a prize for everyone, no one refuses to collaborate.

It's the usual cycling.

For one the stage.

For the other the jersey.

And one sentence sums it up, says Juanpe: "I think this is one of the happiest moments of my life."

Behind them, the Giro favorites forget about the bridgeheads they launched and the fight for the stage.

It is not Etna, too stretched out, so much wind, a place to attack, but to go on a wheel.

Richard Carapaz and his Ineos know it.

They decide to make life impossible for the wheels.

They pull hard.

Everyone.

One by one.

Narvaez, Sivakov, Castroviejo, Porte.

A train that leaves loose wagons behind.

Valverde, Bilbao, Mikel Landa, the Spaniards hook up well.

Also Yates and Kelderman, but Guillaume Martin, arriving at his beloved Rifugio Sapienza, lost more than a minute, Nibali, two, and Dumoulin, the most hit, more than six.

Second mountain assault, on Friday, on the way to Potenza along the crest of the Apennines.

Where, probably, Juanpe López, a spark from Lebrija, will continue to wear pink, happy.

Now, López, a product of the Contador factory —where he made his debut as an amateur cyclist in 2016—, is 39 seconds ahead of second place in the general standings, Kämna, and 58 seconds over third, Rein Taaramae.

Pello Bilbao is seventh, two minutes behind López, and twelfth, at 2:15.

The fourth day of the Italian round was also marked by the abandonment of another López, Miguel Ángel, after some discomfort that prevented him from continuing.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on

Facebook

and

Twitter

, or sign up here to receive

our weekly newsletter

.

Source: elparis

All sports articles on 2022-05-10

You may like

Life/Entertain 2024-02-05T19:40:25.042Z
Life/Entertain 2024-02-10T23:33:42.271Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.