Week Bergamask, 12 to April 19

The Week of Tonkov, third

But why Pavel Tonkov doesn't engage on the Tour of France and prefers the Giro each year??? Explanation: "Mapei wants to win the Giro and I am the runner of the team which is likely the most to arrive at this result. It is not me which avoids the Tour". At the beginning of season, Pavel is very discrete. It does not want to arrive tired at the Giro. And to prepare, he disputes again "his" Week Bergamask.

The second stage envisages to arrive at the top of Colli di San Fermo. But the climatic conditions are bad, it makes cold, it rains and it snows with the arrival. The stage thus finishes in Andrara San Martino, in rise, where Pavel wins to ... massive sprint!!! "I only accelerated in the last meters. I wanted to reassure me on my state of form before the Giro". And Pavel is already leader of the prove. The sixth stage proposes a difficult course, with the very hard percentages of the pass of Trafficanti. Pavel attacks, followed of Zaina, Guerini and Marcus Zberg, and finished second at the sprint. Pavel awaits especially the seventh stage, with the Colle Maddalena to 20 km of the arrival. "I am well. My form improves gradually. The Colle Maddalena is the ideal ground to test me". Pavel attacks to 3 km of the top and nobody can follow him. He wins in Roncadelle with 47" in advance on Enrico Zaina. And for once: "the eyes of Pavel Tonkov shine of joy and satisfaction" (L'Eco di Bergamo, April 19, 1998): "While attacking in Maddalena, I tested excellent feelings". A feeling confirmed by Giuseppe Guerini: "Tonkov was exceptional. On the most difficult percentages, he changed rhythm as he wanted". Pavel thus offers a single triplet in the Week Bergamask. "I needed this victory, because I was late in my preparation. With the passing days, I found the condition and the moral one. I am very related to this race which always carried me chance". Pavel is thus ready for the Giro, and undoubtedly more strong still than 1996...

Tour of Appennino, June 14, 1998

Tonkov to forget the Giro

After having been made beat by Marco Pantani in the Giro, Pavel wants to forget his great disillusion by winning the Tour of Appennino again.

At the beginning - where Pantani misses - one expects a duel between Tonkov and Guerini. The decision this year is not done in Bocchetta, but in the small pass of Castagnola, to 27 km of the arrival. Pavel attacks with his team-mate Paolo Lanfranchi, then wins as a recluse. At the arrival, Pavel will not revive the polemic with Pantani: "Today, I prefer speech of the Turn of Appennino, not of the Giro...". At the end of the season, Pavel must give up the Vuelta. At the arrival of Trofeo Melinda, he strikes Roberto Petito after having crossed the finishing line: fracture of sacrum.