In his hometown of Sondrio, Andrea Bagioli was welcomed by one of the best crowds imaginable, with many friends, numerous fans and especially his family who didn't want to miss this unmissable appointment. Already yesterday the emotion was intense, on the presentation stage he had been accompanied by genuine stadium-like cheering and today he wanted to repay everyone with a solo attack in the final 23 km of the race.

Everyone was pushing him forward, an entire crowd shouting at the big screen, the roar that greeted his third place, just seconds behind Richard Carapaz, was even greater than the one that accompanied Tadej Pogacar's victory at the finish line. «I believe that today Tadej ran his own race, beating him was practically impossible, but I still wanted to try to do my best. In the group there were many of his teammates and there was practically no collaboration, so I decided to attack on a descent that I knew quite well and I launched myself in pursuit of Carapaz. I'm extremely happy with this third place especially because I'm at home with so many friends, I only have the regret of coming close to second place but I'm still satisfied» Andrea recounted, tired, hot but extremely happy.

The crowd was thrilled, there was his family, his brother Nicola, a former pro, his friends, his wife and little Ginevra, his daughter not even two months old who didn't want to miss this special moment for her dad. She received the first embrace full of so much emotion «Already yesterday I felt an incredibly strong emotion, it's never happened to me to race at home and I must say it has a certain effect. These are routes that I know very well and where I've trained many times and I must say it played very much to my advantage. Particularly on the final climb there were many fans, also many friends who were shouting my name, they literally pushed me and I made this attack also for them who arrived in such large numbers. The effort is great but seeing my family here gives me tremendous energy»

We're only at the first stage of the Tour de Suisse and in the coming days there could be new opportunities for Andrea to try to make his mark and perhaps try to finish on the final podium. «Honestly I've never tried to go for the general classification in a race like this, but it's nice to know I'm in third place with a good margin over the group. Certainly in the coming days I'll try to seize every opportunity that comes, but with Tadej in the group it's not so simple. In the group there's often a kind of resignation because you risk racing only for second place, but he's a true champion and I believe we should all be happy to have the opportunity to compete with him.»