quotation markI didn’t expect to be on the podium.
The European title won two weeks ago in Belgium in the same discipline (and in the mixed relay team time trial) has undoubtedly given wings to the 28-year-old rider, who had not won since the Tour of Britain in 2019, during his first year as a professional. “It’s the highlight of my career, I don’t know what to say, it doesn’t happen to me often,” he declared in the wake of his success, a few hundred kilometers from home. “I have had a Dutch girlfriend for seven years. We bought a house in the Netherlands.” Affini was coming out of a very difficult Vuelta, but the Visma | Lease a Bike rider won with almost ten seconds ahead of Stefan Küng, who was the big favourite and his victory caused a total surprise. “This is the hardest Grand Tour I have ever participated in. I really suffered during these three weeks. Without Remco Evenepoel, Joshua Tarling and Filippo Ganna, I knew I had a chance of a good result. But as I didn’t have great feelings coming out of the Vuelta, I wasn’t reassured. When I started the time trial, I didn’t feel any pressure. I started to have better feelings. I believed in it as the kilometers went by.”
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The time trial, quickly his specialty
Affini hasn’t had many opportunities to raise his arms in the air in his career, but if there is one discipline in which he shines, it is time trial. However, the Visma | Lease a Bike team rider first revealed himself on the road, finishing 4th in the Junior World Championships and European road champion in 2014. But his 2nd place in the national time trial championships that same year had a little more meaning for the successes that followed. In the Espoirs, the Italian completely exploded in 2018, the year in which he won the gold medal at the Mediterranean Games, but also the title of European champion – where a certain Tadej Pogacar finished 16th – Italian champion and 4th place in the world time trial championships. If since he became a professional (2019), he has won a medal in the mixed team relay at the European championships every year, this 2024 season represents the apotheosis of a long period of drought, and truly places him among the big names in the specialty. Enough to keep the euphoria going for a few more years.
