Wednesday marked a milestone for Luke Lamperti. The American had never competed in a race longer than ten consecutive days prior to this Giro d’Italia, but he crossed that threshold on stage 11, which took in no fewer than four separate regions as it wound its way to Francavilla al Mare on the Adriatic coast.
“I think today is my first step into unknown territory,” Lamperti smiled at the start in the hamlet of Foiano di Val Fortore. “I’ve done ten days in Baby Giro and the Tour de l’Avenir, so today we step into known territory. We’ll see how the legs feel, but it should be ok.”
Lamperti’s role on stage 11 was a familiar one. Despite his own gifts as a finisher, his primary task on this Giro has been to pilot Soudal-QuickStep teammate Tim Merlier through the final kilometre, and he helped the Belgian to victory in Fossano last week. On Wednesday, Merlier endured the disappointment of being declassified from second place due to an illegal manoeuvre, but Lamperti performed his own duty soundly.
When Merlier was dropped on the rugged run-in to Naples on Sunday, Lamperti had a rare opportunity to chase a result of his own, but the neo-pro confessed that much of the sting had been taken out of sprint by the searing pace up the Colle di Posillipo in the finale.
“I’ve contended once on stage 9, and I got up there in the sprint, but I just didn’t have the legs,” Lamperti said of his 15th place. “But it was still nice to take an opportunity where I could. If I have another chance, I’ll go for it, but we want to try with Tim in the sprint for the next few days.”
Still only 21 years of age, Lamperti was a late addition to Soudal-QuickStep’s Giro plans, but he earned his place through a series of assured displays in his opening months in the pro peloton.
On his very first day, Lamperti helped to pilot fellow neophyte Paul Magnier to victory at the Trofeo Ses Salines-Felanitx, and he later picked up a series of second places in Oman before sampling some cobbled Classics fare. Even so, the call-up for the Giro came as something of a surprise.
“To be honest, I hadn’t really thought about it all and when the team brought up the idea, my initial thought was ‘I don’t know…’” Lamperti said. “But it’s a really nice way to start at Grand Tours, especially with the leaders we have here and with being able to do the lead-out.
“As far as my own expectations, I didn’t have a lot, because I wasn’t meant to do it until about a month ago, so I’m just trying to enjoy the experience and do the best we can with Tim and Julian [Alaphilippe].”
Lamperti smiled when asked about the toughest moment of his Giro so far. Like many in the peloton, he was stretched by the rapid re-introduction to racing at the start in Pompei following Monday’s rest day on the Bay of Naples.
“I think the first 10k after the rest day was actually the hardest part so far and then we raced for 60k before the break went,” Lamperti said. “But we had a nice gruppetto, and it’s actually been quite enjoyable. A few days of gran fondo riding with gruppetto has been nice, so I wouldn’t say we’ve had any really tough days yet where we struggled with the time cut. And now we have a few days where we can be involved in the racing, which is nice as well.”
Lamperti may have reached unknown territory, but he knows enough to understand that the toughest part of his Giro is still to come. The accumulated fatigue will begin to make itself known in the days ahead, while the most demanding mountain stages are still to come, starting with Sunday’s tappone to Livigno.
“I don’t have any fear of it, mentally, but physically, for sure, you start to get tired,” Lamperti said. “We’ll see how I feel physically as it goes on, but right now, I feel ok with it mentally. If we can continue with good weather like this, we’ll be in good shape.”
Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the Giro d'Italia - including breaking news and analysis reported by our journalists on the ground from every stage of the race as it happens and more. Find out more.
