Domenico Pozzovivo likes it romantic. At least when it comes to classical music. He once said that Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt were his idols. Pozzovivo also spent a lot of time behind the piano as a young man. "But when I had to move house, it was difficult to keep going, because the piano is not a particularly good instrument for travelling," he once told Velo News. Pozzovivo had to move because he had learnt to love the bike even more than music.
As a boy from the south of Italy - his hometown of Policoro lies directly on the Gulf of Taranto, between the tip and the heel of the Italian boot - he had to move to the north at the age of 17 in order to be able to race, as cycling was much more popular there at the time. It was only two years earlier that he had begun to focus more seriously on the bike. He turned professional in 2005 at the age of 22 after completing a degree in economics. In the meantime, he has written a doctoral thesis based on this. His hobbies: politics, history and weather forecasting. So the fact that he rides in the peloton under the name "Dr Pozzovivo" is not too far off the mark.
Pozzovivo involved in several heavy crashes
At least this season, the Italian was still part of the peloton. At the Tour of Lombardy, he completed his last race as a professional at the age of almost 42. This is not due to his motivation, he says, he still has fun in the saddle and has no problems training. "The reasons for my retirement are definitely age and the risk associated with cycling. To continue would be to invite trouble," said Pozzovivo in an interview with Bici.Pro before tackling his last Monument. And Pozzovivo knows a thing or two about trouble.
In preparation for the 2019 Vuelta Espana, he collided head-on with a car travelling on the wrong side of the road during training. The result: a bruised lung and numerous broken bones, including his arms, a tibia and a collarbone and various ribs. "I broke about 20 bones and had to have 16 operations," he later told Cycling Weekly. Various metal plates and screws still hold some of the fractures together today. In addition, Pozzovivo was particularly easy to spot in the final years of his career due to a crooked posture on the bike that stemmed from that accident. Doctors predicted the end of his career, partly due to his advanced age as an athlete. But Pozzovivo continued undaunted.
He had already been hit hard in 2015. He crashed heavily on a descent on stage 3 of the Giro. After hitting his head, he lost consciousness and lay motionless for several minutes. The situation was serious, but not life-threatening, a race doctor said at the time.
Domenico Pozzovivo and the record at the Giro
But Pozzovivo's retirement at the end of the season has another background, "a beautiful story, like in a film", he called it himself. Over the past three years, the ageing Italian has struggled to find a team. After his team Qhubeka NextHash folded at the end of the 2021 season, it looked as if Pozzovivo would also have to call it a day. It was not until mid-February that he was able to sign a contract with Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert. Despite an astonishingly successful season - eighth place in the Giro as the second-best Italian behind Vincenzo Nibali and third place in the important Italian autumn classic Giro dell'Emilia - and reportedly advanced negotiations about another year, he was left without a team in the winter.
This time, it would take until March for him to find a new home at Israel-Premier Tech. But here, too, his contract only ran until the end of the year. But he still didn't want to quit. Because one goal was still open. To set an age-old record that is almost impossible to achieve in this day and age. One more year, one more start in the Giro d'Italia, would put him on a par with Wladimiro Panizza, who made a total of 18 starts in the Tour of Italy between 1967 and 1985.
The fact that it would end up being the team with which Pozzovivo spent the first eight years of his professional career made history perfect. With the Pro Team VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizane, which was still called Ceramica Panaria - Navigare in 2005, he was able to ride the Giro for the 18th time in 20 years. The record was one of his main motivations, he said at the signing. "But I also didn't want to not have finished the Giro last year and not have even been at the start of the Tour of Lombardy."
Pozzovivo's star rises at the Giro
The two races that were closest to Pozzovio's heart were ultimately also the ones in which he achieved his greatest successes. He made it into the top 8 three times in the final Monument of the year. In 2011, he finished sixth just eight seconds behind in one of the closest decisions of the classic.
Only at the Giro did he go even higher. The mountain specialist, whose sporting idol was Marco Pantani ("At the time when I started cycling, he was in his prime"), finished in the top 10 a total of seven times. In 2008 - his third participation - Pozzovivo made it into the top ten for the first time. His ninth place in the final standings was still a surprise. He could easily have celebrated his first stage win that season. He finished the mountain arrival at Passo Fedaia on stage 15 a good two minutes behind his team-mate Emanuele Sella in second place. However, Sella tested positive for the EPO drug CERA in August of this year.
Pozzovivo, one of the most controversial climbers of the 2010s, was never associated with doping. Yet he began his career in one of the darkest chapters of cycling. Only four years after his first top 10 result in Italy did he finish another Giro, this time in eighth place and by no means a surprise.
2012 - Pozzovivo's most successful year
In any case, 2012 was one of the best years for the 1.65 metre tall and 53 kilogramme mountain flea. In addition to 8th place in the overall standings, he celebrated his only stage win as a soloist on a moderately difficult stage on Lago Laceno. Shortly before that, he had already proven his good form at the Giro del Trentino, today's Tour of the Alps, and also won the overall classification with a stage victory. He also won a stage at the Tour of Slovenia in June. He finished second in the overall standings. In the autumn, he followed this up with three more top 10 results in the Italian classics.
The following season, Pozzovivo took part in two Grand Tours in one year for the first time. After finishing tenth in the Tour of Italy, things went even better in the Vuelta with sixth place. He started three more times in Spain, finishing eleventh. The Tour de France played an even smaller role for him. He only made three starts there, with 18th place being his best result in 2018.
At the Giro, however, 2018 was one of the best years of Pozzovivo's career. As in 2014, he finished in fifth place. Although he was one position lower in 2017, the gap to winner Tom Dumolin was significantly smaller than in the other years at just 3:11 minutes. Another outstanding year was 2022, when Pozzovivo finished eighth in the top 10 of a major national tour at the age of 39. The fact that it was never enough for one of the most consistent climbers of the 2010s to finish on the podium in the overall classification is due to his comparatively weak performances in the time trial.
Pozzovivo's lack of time trial skills cost him major successes
In the 2017 Giro, for example, with just under 70 kilometres of time trial spread over two stages, Pozzovivo lost almost six minutes to Dumoulin. Without the battle against the clock, he would ultimately have been ahead of the Dutchman. And ahead of Ilnur Zakarin and Vincenzo Nibali, who were also ahead of him. He would have finished the Giro in third place, 1:16 minutes behind Nairo Quintana and 22 seconds behind Thibaut Pinot.
But what his career has been deprived of one way or another is a day in the pink jersey. "I would have liked to have achieved that," he once said in his penultimate season. He also never got involved in the battle for the mountain jersey, even though that might have been more in keeping with his abilities. And so, despite its incredible scope, Domenico Pozzovivo's sporting career remains unfinished in some respects. Because even in the one-week tours, he never made it to the very front. Four top 10 places at Tirreno-Adriatico, five at the Tour de Suisse. But no podium. He only managed that once, finishing third in the Tour of Catalonia in 2015, and as a junior rider, when he finished on the podium in the U23 Giro the year before he turned pro.
Pozzovivo has not yet announced any plans for his future after 20 years in the saddle. A little time together with his wife Valentina Conte, whom he married in 2015, will certainly fall away. There are also signs of a baby on the horizon, as a onesie he was presented with at the Tour of Lombardy suggests. A move to sporting director in a team would not be a surprise. Nevertheless, Pozzovivo once said years ago that a future as a politician could be exciting for him.
Domenico Pozzovivo's greatest successes
- 1x stage winner Giro d'Italia 2012
- 2x fifth overall at the Giro d'Italia (2014 and 2018), seven times in the top 10 in total
- Sixth in the overall standings of the Vuelta Espana 2013
- 3x top 8 at the Tour of Lombardy (6th place in 2011 and 2017, 8th place in 2018)
- 3x top 8 at Liège-Bastogne-Liège (5th place in 2014 and 2018, 8th place in 2015)
- Overall victory Giro del Trentino 2012
- 1x stage winner Tour de Suisse 2017
- 1x stage winner of the Tour of Catalonia 2015
- 3x stage winner of the Giro del Trentino (2010, 2012 and 2015)
- Overall victory Brixia Tour 2010
- A total of 13 victories as a professional
