Giulio Pellizzari sharpening blunted knives and looking ready for a comeback: 'A new Giro starts on Saturday'

For a brief moment, it looked like we had a real duel on our hands at the Giro d'Italia, when Giulio Pellizzari bravely matched Jonas Vingegaard on the Blockhaus in stage seven. The Dane from Visma | Lease a Bike attacked repeatedly, but struggled to drop the young Italian from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. We look back with a touch of wistfulness at what might have been — and so does Pellizzari.

The 22-year-old climber won April's Tour of the Alps with authority, taking two stage wins, and heading into the Giro he made clear he intended to challenge. On Blockhaus he proved he meant it. He pushed himself to the limit and still lost over a minute, but according to his team, crucial information had been gained.

"We would never have known just how good Jonas really is if you had ridden at your own pace from the start. Can you imagine if Jonas had been slightly weaker and Giulio had finished close, knowing that he could actually have stayed with him and perhaps won?", his coach asked himself the day after the Blockhaus stage.

That same coach was bold enough to predict a turnaround in the stage ten time trial. "I expect Giulio to do better than Jonas — I genuinely believe that," said the Pole Sylwester Szmyd. But before the time trial even took place, Pellizzari had already taken another hit. On stage nine he lost a minute and a half due to stomach problems.

After the rest day, Pellizzari's time trial turned out to be reasonably solid — but instead of gaining time, he lost 18 seconds to Vingegaard. His coach brought it up again with us the following day at the team bus. He felt vindicated: Pellizzari had ridden around 25 watts below his normal level in the time trial. In full health, he might well have put time into Vingegaard.

The Italian appeared to be slowly recovering from the illness that had set him back on day nine. Ahead of stage twelve, a cheerful Pellizzari spoke to In de Leiderstrui and others at the start. "Wednesday was a tough day. Let's hope we can recover a little more today and tomorrow. Then a new Giro starts on Saturday."

In stage fourteen, the peloton climbs to the summit of Pila — a final ascent of 16.6 kilometres at an average gradient of 7 per cent, and the first stage where the climbing begins from the very start of the day. Can Pellizzari begin his fightback there and chip away at the 3 minutes and 9 seconds he trails Vingegaard? Or at the very least close the gap on the 1 minute and 10 seconds that separates him from the podium?

When an Italian journalist asked about a potential white jersey, Pellizzari's answer was tellingly ambitious. "The white is definitely a target — I'm second in the young rider classification. But let's not forget that it's still Afonso Eulálio who holds it. I think it's possible; we'll do our best for it."

More telling, though, was what he added afterwards: "The last three days are not something I would want to relive. But let's talk about what's still to come and enjoy it." The pink jersey he has dreamed of may be out of reach for now, but Pellizzari appears to be lifting himself physically and mentally. What does that promise for all the mountains that still lie ahead in this Giro?