The reasons to love Domenico Pozzovivo keep coming, thick and fast – much like the rider himself should he be going uphill. Most revolve around his limitations – to ‘downhill’, ‘the flat’ and ‘time trials’ we can now add ‘in the wet’, ‘in the cold’ and ‘in a group’. Basically, he can go uphill on his own and nothing else.
Yesterday’s stage at the Giro also saw him needlessly punishing Michele Scarponi for a few hundred metres at the top of the final climb. Why didn’t he apply pressure earlier? Why did he apply pressure at all? Don’t know, but his unpredictability is another attribute in my eyes. Pretty much all the general classification contenders were looking ragged as they reached the summit, while Pozzovivo was just dead-eyed, breathing through his nose like he was playing darts, not knocking chunks out of elite athletes.
Scarponi was the only one to lose ground and he caught up on the descent, but it still showed him up a little. Maybe Pozzovivo was just fact-finding for a more dementedly relentless attack later in the week.
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