In modern cycling there are those who run continuously and those who decide to approach big events by isolating themselves from everything . L'Equipe tells this morning how the French Guillaume Martin , captain of the Cofidis , prepared for his first Giro d'Italia , in retreat in April alone on the slopes of Etna for three weeks.

Guillaume Martin went down every morning from the Sapienza refuge, 1950 meters above sea level, where he had settled, breaking the custom of retreats in Spain , in the Sierra Nevada , out of boredom towards the mountains of Andalusia . “Its hotels - writes L'Equipe - seem like colleges, its canteens and its charmless streets. Here, in Sicily, you feel at home ".  

Martin says he has a special relationship with Italy and that he grew up with the stories of his father, an Aikido teacher, «about Fausto Coppi , Gino Bartali , the blind masseur Cavanna, the White Lady. This whole Italian universe touches me ». In retreat he also brought his partner Emilie, with whom he visited Catania , Taormina and Savoca .

Martin is a continuous and excellent rider for Fantacycling , even if he often misses the winning idea: 8th in the Tour de France and 9th in the Vuelta last year, 9th in the Paris-Nice and 8th in the Tour of Catalonia this season. .

«In 2021 I had thought of racing aiming for the stages. But it was against my nature. If I'm honest with myself: I don't know how to get out of it. I don't know how to waste time just to be less controlled. And I don't know how to get over myself. When I'm on the run with the runners I'm supposed to beat, they automatically raise the level, I'm not able to. To exaggerate, I always feel the fifth, even if the four guys in front of me are never the same. It's frustrating and I understand that the crowd doesn't get excited about it. Consistency is not part of French culture. Maybe I would be more appreciated in Japan (laughs). If we look at my times on the climbs, I can sometimes be faster than Lance Armstrong in his time, and we know how. I make progress. It is not obvious, because the gap between the best and the last is smaller than before. I am a slow maturing runner. At 21, Tadej Pogacar won the Tour. At 21, I was an amateur ».

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