Recovering from a bad crash on stage five of the Tour of Qatar and the resulting broken right collarbone he received in the impact, Filippo Pozzato has taken another step in his recovery. The Italian Farnese Vini Selle Italia rider underwent an operation on Sunday morning, and yesterday left the hospital in Brescia. Today, after an hour and a half of treatment by the massage therapist Michele Del Gallo, he was able to do an hour on the rollers.
Pozzato wants to try to return as quickly as possible and then build enough form to dispute the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. While a date for his first race has not been given, he is clear that there’s no time to waste.
“I did not want to wait any longer. The collarbone is a bit bad, but it could be worse. I'm glad to get back to work right away. I did physiotherapy and rollers, for today. Tomorrow, who knows – day by day I will speak with the doctor, Luca Scinto [team manager] and the physiotherapist. Day by day we will choose how to proceed. Of course I want to recover as soon as possible from this injury.”
Pozzato is trying to return to top form after some quiet seasons with the Katusha team. He had several good offers for 2012 but decided that the Farnese Vini Selle Italia squad was the best fit for him, and that he could bounce back there.
Despite the collarbone problem, he’s aiming for his original targets. “My goals remain the same,” he said. “Sure, I'll skip the Laigueglia [Trophy] and I'm sorry about that, but I do not want to miss other [races].”