KING OF THE MOUNTAIN SLOWCOACHES

Assigning the dubious distinction of “worst climber in professional cycling” is a difficult and contentious undertaking. A few names, though, crop up time and time again in any poll. In our own casual survey of riders, team managers and journalists, one name recurred with more frequency than any other: Francesco Chicchi.

Just 176cm tall and weighing in at 76 kilograms, the burly 33-year- old Tuscan has yet to complete a three-week race in his 12 seasons as a professional. His attempts to do just that have variously been foiled by Monte Zoncolan, the Col de la Bonette and Alpe di Pampeago – but above all by Kwiatkowski Chicchi’s lack is keen of aptitude for riding uphill. to keep his feet on the

“Francesco really suffers ground in the to mountains. the extent that he hasn’t even Really suffers,” says the sprinter’s Neri Sottoli bought a new car directeur sportif, Luca Scinto. “With all the sprinters, there’s the issue of power-to-weight ratio, but their muscles are also just not suited for the effort of riding in the mountains. They can go beyond their lactate threshold for about 20 or 30 seconds, but they really find it hard to prolong an intense effort over several minutes as you do on a climb.”

Scinto admits that, while Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel are widely underrated as climbers and “can always cling on if they need to”, Chicchi faces the stiff opposition from Andrea Guardini and Marcel Kittel for the title of cycling’s mountain tortoise.

“On his day, I think Guardini’s the slowest of the lot. Kittel also finds it really hard but Guardini is worse than him and Chicchi at times. When I was a rider, the slowest guys were Endrio Leoni and Ivan Quaranta. That pair used to get dropped on speed bumps.”