The 21-year-old Slovenian talent claims a thrilling and Giro del Belvedere with plenty of rain, escapes and turnarounds. Visma misses out at the very end, Donati (Biesse-Carrera) and Crescioli (Team Technipes) round up the podium
Lately, the bond between Slovenia, UAE and cycling grows every day more. And that was again the case at the 85th Giro del Belvedere, staged today, April 1st, in Villa di Cordignano (Treviso, North East Italy). UAE Team Emirates Gen-Z Gal Glivar, 21-year-old rider of, raised his hands on the finish line after a thrilling Giro del Belvedere. One of the few accomplishments missed by one the greatest today’s cycling stars and fellow countryman, Tadej Pogačar, who recorded two top-10 but never got better than a 8th place.
Despite the heavy rain in the first part of the day, a massive crowd celebrated the Slovenian as well as an impressive performance by the Italian athletes as Davide Donati (Biesse-Carrera) and Ludovico Crescioli (Team Technipes #InEmiliaRomagna) rounded out the podium.
Empty hands and great disappointment for the Visma-Lease a Bike’s reigning champion, who grazed the win with Menno Huising but missed out on the gold medal: “I gave it all and made a 20” gap with a handful of km to go, but in the end it was not enough”. The top-5 is rounded up by other big names of the U23 category, such as Alessandro Pinarello (VC Group-Bardiani-CSF Faizanè) and Alessandro Romele (Astana Qazaqstan).
175 riders tackled the 168 km course with 2085 m elevation gain. Kevin Pezzo Rosola (Team General Store) left the bunch at km 12 and went solo until the 100 km mark. Here a 60-unit peloton raised the pace and made the race even harder, while the rain was slowly starting to stop.
The high tempo stretched the bunch and fragmented it into many small groups, with Schrettl (Tirol KTM) and Romele (Astana Qazaqstan) who tried to go solo, with no luck. Menno Huising (Team Visma) increased even more the pace and only 17 riders kept up. The Dutch rider gave it all and made a new gap of almost 20” at the last KOM, which seemed like the winning attack. With 3 km to go, a 15-rider peloton got back on him and prepared the final sprint, where Glivar fooled them all and took the win.
“Wow, what a race! – Glivar argued -. It would have been tough by itself with such a strong field of riders, yet the rain made it even tougher. I’m super happy about this win, one week after a very hard Coppi e Bartali. The plan was to get in the final straight in second position and sprint it all, and so I did it. The new Pogacar? I hope so, he’s my idol”.
The Pro Belvedere organizing committee also expressed great satisfaction for a hard – due to the heavy rain – but successful edition. In the roll of honour, Glivar confirms the tradition of great rising star winning the Easter Monday Classic, coming after superb talents like Johannes Staune-Mittet, Romain Grégoire and Juan Ayuso.
