Romain Hardy: "My role will be to protect Nairo on this Milano-Torino"

Pre-race

“I have raced several times in Torino-Milano and this race, depending on the edition, is either for sprinters or for climbers. I have only ridden the difficult version, the one that will be proposed tomorrow with the double climb of Superga, the basilica that dominates Turin. It’s a four and a half kilometre long bump, we usually arrive in a group at the foot and it’s long and steep and that allows us to make the difference. It’s different from Emilia which is more for the puncheurs whereas here it’s more for the climbers, and that can correspond more to Nairo. My role tomorrow will be to place him at the foot and to protect him during the whole race, so that he doesn’t get wind, to go and get his water bottles, and to place him at the bottom because at the top there will be a maximum of thirty riders at the top of the basilica at the end of the first climb, and then it will be up to other riders to be at his side at that moment”.