The history of cycling is full of winning brothers, even among this sport’s greatest. Just think of Fausto and Serse Coppi, Gino and Claudio Bartali, Miguel and Prudencio Indurain, and more recently Andy and Frank Schleck, Vincenzo and Antonio Nibali, Nairo and Dayer Quintana, Peter and Juraj Sagan, to name but a few.
Aurélien and Valentin Paret-Peintre are perhaps not as famous, but the fact remains that today they have joined the small circle of brothers who are both Giro d’Italia stage winners. They are the 13th to do so; before them, Rudi and Willi Altig, Nino and Alberto Assirelli, Giuseppe and Ernesto Azzini, Albino and Alfredo Binda, Jean and Louison Bobet, Filippo and Francesco Casagrande, Gorka and Ion Izagirre, Luciano and Sergio Maggini, Eddy and Willi Planckaert, Guido and Wilfried Reybrouck, Piet and Wim Van Est, Renzo and Valeriano Zanazzi.
Aurélien had won last year at Lake Laceno. A year and four days later Valentin won atop Bocca della Selva: both uphill finishes and both, coincidentally, in Campania. The two are five years apart, the former is from 1996, the latter from 2001, and although they have very similar features, physically they are quite different. Aurélien is almost 10 centimetres taller, more robust, powerful and explosive. Valentin, for his part, is a pure climber, very lean, and today he achieved his first victory as a professional.
A few weeks before the Giro, at the Tour of the Alps, Aurélien had won the last stage and on that occasion had said with a touch of irony: “Who is stronger between me and Valentin? Well, I have won four races, and he has won none, he is younger but at the moment I’m the stronger one. I’ve seen him grow, I think he’s improving a lot. He’s a pure climber, I’m more versatile, I do well in sprints and time trials. Valentin still needs to work a bit, but I think he can win a stage at the Giro and maybe place well in the general classification”.
As far as placing in the general classification is concerned, perhaps it is still a little early, although he can still break into the top 20, but it took Valentin just 10 days to win a stage. His brother was right, but then again, who knows him better than he does?
