Rosa, Fortunato: “The sky is always bluer”

“The Sky is Always Bluer,” a wonderful hymn to joy that seems written for our team and seems written for today. A day that set things right, because clearly there was a need for it. The climb, the mountain, the effort: things that exalted EOLO-KOMETA, that exalted Diego Rosa and Lorenzo Fortunato, that exalted our way of being a team. Everyone, from the first to the last.

And is there really any need to chronicle it? To say that Rosa had a crazy day going into a breakaway, winning three GPMs and wearing the blue jersey? To say that wearing this jersey after a stage like this is something incredible? Need we say that Lorenzo Fortunato raced like Lorenzo Fortunato, recovering 15 positions in the general classification? No, just shout this phrase: “The sky is always bluer.” Blue like our uniform, blue like Rosa’s jersey, blue like the Abruzzo sky. Which, hell, tonight looks like it was painted by Michelangelo for how beautiful it is.

Diego Rosa: “I dedicate this jersey to my wife, because she didn’t tell me off in the week before the Giro. You know, in those days there is a little bit of tension there, I train and then I rest, at home I don’t do anything and…the wife puts up with it. So really, I dedicate it to her. And then I also dedicate it to myself because I come from two difficult years, I come from a period when I threw down so much mud and I was not myself anymore. Being here, being in this team that makes me feel good and makes me feel important, being in this group for me is everything. And for me it’s great to rediscover the beauty of a breakaway, the desire to make a show, to try. Whether I will defend this jersey? I’ll let you in on a secret: when I agreed with EOLO-KOMETA, I asked to include a prize for winning the blue jersey at the Giro. So, I’ve been thinking about this here for a long time. Of course, someone like Yates came out of the rankings and might set this as a goal, but I’m going to make him sweat it out….”

Maurizio Borserini / Sprint Cycling