After a short illness and two road cycling races in Italy, Erik Fetter’s goal is still to get into the EOLO-Kometa squad for the Giro d’Italia.
The 23-year-old Hungarian time trial champion raced in the Sicilian circuit from Tuesday to Friday, and in the one-day race in Reggio Calabria on Sunday. When contacted by MTI, he pointed out that he had been struggling with a stomach problem due to a viral illness for five days before the Sicilian Tour, and was unable to train or eat really. So, even though he was feeling better every day, he wasn’t in great shape all week.
“It was good for training, I was still able to finish fifteenth in the third stage, and in the fourth I easily got into the runaway of the day. After three and a half hours, after eighty kilometers of running, my legs started cramping as a typical aftereffect of diarrheal illness, while the attacks in our group started, so I had to slow down,” Erik Fetter looked back .
According to him, he worked for his team on Sunday from the first climb, controlled the attacks on the flat and dictated the pace even halfway up the last hill.
Last year, Fetter participated in the first three weeks of his career at the Giro d’Italia, which started from Hungary, and he built the beginning of the current season with his team in such a way that he will be in the squad for the Italian tour that starts in three weeks.
“This plan has not changed, I have done the work, and the high-altitude training camp went well. The illness is an unplanned hindrance factor, but at the same time, all of us in the team know that the job is in me,” he stated.
Fetter will travel home to Hungary on Monday, where at first rest and more relaxed training will await him, followed by a harder training block. He revealed: then he might go abroad for a week, for example to Austria, so that he can prepare for the tougher Italian mountains on higher climbs.
“If I do that, I can start the three-week race in the best possible shape,” said Fetter, who is scheduled to travel to the Giro, which starts in Fossacesia Marina on May 6, in two-and-a-half weeks.