TROYES, France (AP) Dancing on his pedals and accelerating up the mountain past Chris Froome and all of the other Tour de France favorites, Fabio Aru’s audacious attack brought back memories of Lance Armstrong’s one-time challenger, the late Marco Pantani.
It was the work of a ”pure climber,” as Giuseppe Martinelli, Aru’s team director who guided Pantani to the 1998 Tour title, put it.
”The way Fabio attacks reminds me of Pantani,” Martinelli said in an interview with The Associated Press. ”Yesterday’s attack was just like one of Pantani’s moves.
”Besides making the other guys hurt, he also created a gap.