Fresh off of a 2nd-place finish at the Vattenfall Cyclassics in Hamburg, Giacomo Nizzolo of Trek Factory Racing is looking forward to having another shot at a big win in the upcoming GP Ouest-France, where he was 2nd in 2013. Nizzolo’s 2014 campaign has had its gratifying moments and its frustrating ones, and plenty of moments that have been a bit of both, and he took a few minutes out of his midweek preparation to talk to VH about his season so far and his expectations for Sunday’s race in Plouay.

Nizzolo started off the year strong with a victory in the Tour de San Luis, but soon after, he suffered a broken collarbone as a result of a training crash. The painful injury would be just the first in a series of difficult health issues that have hampered him on and off throughout the year. Nizzolo described the persistent challenge of being slowed by injury and illness this season when his form has otherwise been very strong as “one of the hardest” of his career.

“I had great training camps in the winter and I was in really good shape at the beginning of the season and then unluckily I broke my collarbone. I think that the first part of the season could have been really successful for me, but then with the crash everything was gone,” he explained to VeloHuman. “And then, mentally and physically, it was really hard to get my shape back for the Giro.

“I came to the Dauphiné to try to get a victory after the Giro because I knew I was in great shape and normally after a big tour I’m good. So I went there, and then on the only stage for the sprinters, with sixty kilometers to go, I crashed and I broke a bone in my shoulder. I only discovered the fracture twenty days later. I thought it was something with the tendon and I planned some therapy to try to treat the tendon, but I kept moving the shoulder and it was definitely not [feeling] the right way.

“Then, I stopped, I took a break, and then tried to work hard for the second part of the season. I went to altitude again, I came down, I went to Wallonie and got the stage victory. But still I felt that something was wrong, and I got this virus. I was feeling it actually until the Eneco Tour last week. Even last week I was not feeling so good.”

He finally started to feel better in time for Hamburg’s Vattenfall Cyclassics, where he put in a strong ride to finish 2nd behind Alexander Kristoff in a sprint. His sixth 2nd-place performance on the year (he notched four of them in the Giro d’Italia), it was certainly something to be proud of, but at the same time, a frustrating result. Nizzolo acknowledged that it is hard to feel satisfied when he finishes a race as runner-up.

“I’m disappointed. Sometimes, third is much better than second because when you’re second you’re so close to victory and you’re missing really only a few things to win,” he explained. “When you’re third you can say, ‘Well there was one guy stronger than me even if the winner was not there.’ So I am a little bit frustrated. But on the other side, when I think about it days later, I say, ‘Okay, in the end, what can I say? I did my best.’ . . . Sometimes I make mistakes, but for example in Hamburg, this was the best I could bring home, especially when you think that I was coming from a week that was not the best. On one side, you’re disappointed, but on the other you can be proud to be there.”

Frustrating though they may be, the near misses don’t stop Nizzolo from working hard to find areas of improvement. In the Giro, for example, he tried to fine tune his timing with each finish.

“In the Giro I tried different ways to win the stage. One time I waited, but he [Nacer Bouhanni] started [his sprint]. Other times, I tried to anticipate the sprint and start before him. You look at the videos and you look at what maybe you did wrong and what you can make better and, for sure, you can learn something. . . . When you lose you can always learn something. Even when you win. When I win, I say sometimes, ‘This could be better.’ Every time, you have to learn something.”

He now has his sights set on the upcoming GP Ouest-France in Plouay, a major objective for the remainder of his 2014 racing calendar. Hillier than the Vattenfall Cyclassics, the GP Ouest-France came down to a sprint last year, but it’s a tough event that does encourage riders to attempt longer-range moves.

“Plouay was one of my targets from the top of the season,” Nizzolo said. “Hamburg and Plouay are some of my favorite races. Sunday in Plouay is harder than Hamburg, but it’s a race that I like (like Hamburg) so I will go there really, really, really motivated and I will have the maximum support from the team, as I had in Hamburg. In Hamburg I had the support from the team even when I was not in the best shape. So in Plouay I will have everybody helping me and we will go for it.”

The race is still a few days away, but he already has a sense of who his main rivals might be.

“I think, more or less, it will be the same competitors as Hamburg, though it’s harder and the climb is closer to the finish, so guys like Van Avermaet, Trentin, Albasini, Gerrans . . . they could make some action at the end so that for us as sprinters it will be harder to get results,” he said.

After the GP Ouest-France, Nizzolo expects to take on the Brussels Cycling Classic and the Tour de l’Eurométropole, among other races. With the World Championship Road Race not far off, Nizzolo acknowledges that selection to the Italian team is something he thinks about, but he isn’t sure how well the parcours suits him.

“I checked the circuit a few months ago and it’s hard. The climbs are hard but there is not much recovery between them . . . and there are more than 4000 meters of altitude, so it will be hard. For a guy like me, I would need to be in the best shape to be there. So honestly at the moment I will go for Plouay and then we will make a check and discuss,” he said.

Looking beyond the 2014 season, Nizzolo is signed with Trek through 2016 after renewing with the team in the middle of this year. The team isn’t laying any specific goals for these next few seasons at his feet, but Nizzolo has targets in mind.

“I don’t think we have particular goals, but I see and they see probably that I improve every year a little bit. So we will try to go for stages in the big tours and then a semi-classic like Hamburg or Plouay,” he said.

On strong form and, at least for the moment, unhampered by illness or injury, Nizzolo will have an opportunity at meeting one of those goals in four days at the GP Ouest-France in Plouay. Narrowly missing out on a win there last year, and likely to face some of the same rivals that contested the recent Vattenfall Cyclassics, Nizzolo will have that little bit of extra familiarity with the situation on the road as the day nears its conclusion, which will certainly be a useful asset in his attempt to reach the next step on the podium this time around.

-Dane Cash

Photo by Jérémy Jännick.