No Tom Dumoulin; hospital regular Pozzovivo was the one and only (outstanding) "miner on a bike"

In 2020, when Tadej Pogacar had astonished the cycling world at La Planche des Belles Filles with a giant time trial and secured his first overall victory in the Tour de France, Tom Dumoulin was not yet ready for media-trained pronouncements. The Dutchman had just seen his Jumbo-Visma teammate Primoz Roglic lose the Tour, and Dumoulin - who himself came second in that notorious time trial - found that difficult to digest. "I come second behind a rider who sits on his bike like a miner. I just don't understand why," it sounded honest in a published documentary by the team.

Dumoulin just wanted to point out that Pogacar had no style whatsoever. His back curved, his head never really in the perfect position, but his legs could pedal oh so hard. A miner, especially if you compare it to Dumoulin on a time trial bike. A feast for the eyes, where you could easily put a tray of wine glasses on his back. He would bring them filled to the finish line. What do you get if, despite pure aerodynamics, you give up 1.21 minutes to a young Slovenian who pedaled away his enormous wattages in an angled position?

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How many riders in the peloton must have felt the same way when they competed with Pozzovivo? When they were pushed aside uphill by a rider who, with his 1.65 meters, weighing around 50 kilograms and in with awkward movements, looked nothing like one of the most consistent cyclists of his time. He once started in 2005 at Ceramica Panaria-Navigare, the predecessor of today's Bardiani. It was the year Pogacar turned seven years old. In 2013, he made the move to the WorldTour for AG2R La Mondiale before riding for Bahrain Merida in 2018 and 2019, Team Qhubeka in 2020 and 2021, and finishing with seasons at Intermarché-Wanty, Israel-Premier Tech, and back to the original team at Bardiani in 2024.

If you look at a photo of Pozzovivo from 2005, you will recognize him only by his face. The legs then are still streamlined along the body, pedaling. The arms are young and narrow, hanging straight in the handlebars. The head is already a bit tilted, and the eyes breathe determination. After all, it is not as though Pozzovivo was born a miner in 1982 in Policoro. His cycling career was mainly full of setbacks that caused him to cycle increasingly askew over the last decade. We could jokingly call him a hospital regular, with all the plates, screws, and pins that were hammered into his body over the years.

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Pozzovivo suffered a fractured tibia and fibula while attempting to avoid a cat during training in 2014. Head injuries after a crash into the ravine at the Giro d'Italia in 2015, a broken arm and leg in tatters after a collision with a car in 2019, and, in 2023, broken ribs and a pneumothorax at the Vuelta Castilla y Leon. Those are just the severe injuries, as Pozzovivo fell many more times. Often not severe enough to stop, although severe enough to make cycling even more wonky, but Pozzovivo kept going.

Since 2005, Pozzovivo has participated in nineteen Giro d'Italia's eighteen times. Six times, he abandoned. He competed three times in The Tour de France, with the Pogacar mentioned above Tour in 2020 being his last. Pozzovivo never saw La Planche des Belles Filles because of abandoning due to an elbow injury after a crash on day one. In the Vuelta a España, we saw him four times, twice of which he made it to the end. In his career, he, therefore, won only thirteen times. The last was in 2017 on a mountain stage in the Tour of Switzerland. Other wins included the Giro del Trentino in 2012, another stage in the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya in 2015, and in eighteen races, he credited one Giro stage in 2012.

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What if? It's the question you ask yourself most often with Domenico Pozzovivo. What if he had crashed less? What if those enormous powers in those chunky calves had been lost entirely on his pedals instead of in the next hospital? The career of the now 41-year-old Italian has been one that many would sign up for. Twice top five and a total of seven times top ten in the Giro, sixth in his first Vuelta a España and several times in the first five or first ten in climbing classics such as Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Lombardy.

So tenacious, so constant... With his skills, he was no longer a rider who could be successful in the biggest races in 2024 but someone who still finished fourth in the Tour of Slovenia at age 41. He would have made it to the podium on a grand tour in his heyday, but perhaps he was too good for that. Pushing, positioning, and elbowing were not for him. Often, he was in the back, where the crashes frequently happened. Uphill slowly came to the front. Italy, therefore, loves the always good-looking Pozzovivo. It is that smile with which we said goodbye to him on the last Tour of Lombardy in Italy. Can those poor muscles and bones finally get some much-needed rest? However, we wonder aloud if, in retirement, he won't just keep on doing what he was so good at despite all those setbacks. Grazie mille, miner Domenico.

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])