Lilian Calmejane was at the forefront on the inaugural stage of the Tour of Italy. The French ofIntermarché-Wanty even regains the blue jersey in the mountain classification. Member of the breakaway, the 31-year-old rider managed to escape from the leading group alongside Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl-Trek). In good shape, he takes the lead Colle della Maddalena (7.1km at 6.6%, summit 22km from the finish) in the finale, before being taken back on the descent. A good start, therefore, for those who are aiming for a stage victory on this Giro. And the blue tunic rewards a very offensive temperament on a lively first day. “I’m getting older, I’m getting closer to the end, but I think I’ve been dreaming of a stage at the Giro for a long timeadmits the person concerned in the mixed zone. For a rider like me, it’s one of the greatest things to achieve, winning a stage in every Grand Tour.”
Lilian Calmejane takes the blue jersey after the 1st stage
“Defending the jersey? It’s almost impossible”
“This year I am focusing on this race, continues Lilian Calmejane. All other races are important. But the Giro is really the goal of my season. Today, I didn’t really intend to go into the breakaway. I think tomorrow (Sunday) might be more interesting. I have a very good team. The plan was the classification of the mountain, I don’t know. I didn’t take the first points, so the others didn’t think I wanted this jersey. And then, with good legs, I go with the guy from Lidl-Trek (Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier). We did a good job together. And then, I was able to take the big points of the day. So for me, it’s a good race. Now that I have this jersey, I want to defend it. If you have Mountain-Jersey, you want to defend. But now, if you look at the rankings, it’s almost impossible. Because you have doubled points for the overall leaders. And when you know that a guy like Pogacar wants to win everything, he’s going to have a lot of points in this classification. But we can’t know.”
