Cycling, Europeans: Nizzolo out, Bennati changes the national team, Viviani enters

In the fall on Wednesday, the Milanese, the 2020 European champion, had beaten his head: today the training in Germany was not positive. With Dainese he was the second striker. The Veronese, who had pulled out of the road test, is already in Monaco with the track group. There will be Mozzato instead

The first national team of coach Daniele Bennati changes. A day and a half from the European championship on Sunday in Munich, Giacomo Nizzolo has to raise the white flag and Bennati calls Elia Viviani, already in Munich but so far destined only for the track group: just the Rio 2016 Olympian had pulled out of the road group after the performances (for him below expectations) at the Tour of Poland. The 33-year-old Milanese, Italian and European champion in 2020, crashed in the Franco-Belgian Circuit in Belgium on Wednesday and hit his head. A non-trivial fall, which required careful medical checks. Nizzolo trained today in Germany with his teammates, but the responses were not positive, and for Italy it is a serious loss: he and Alberto Dainese should have shared the responsibility for the sprint. In Italy there are the two reserves Pasqualon and Cimolai, plus the two chroniclers Cattaneo and Sobrero, while Viviani was already in Monaco: the Veronese at this point must give up running the Elimination race on the track on Sunday, a specialty of which he is champion of the world. On Sunday there will be eight races on a very flat and fast track: the other seven blues are Dainese, Ganna, Trentin, Milan, Mozzato (recovered from abrasions in Wednesday’s crash in Belgium), Guarnieri and Baroncini. Italy has won the continental title since 2018, with Trentin, Viviani, Nizzolo and Colbrelli.

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