Blessed are the second to last. Sixty-third out of 64 finishers (and 69 who started in the first stage), Alessio Gasparini - 26 years old, from Verona, racing for a Rwandan team, the May Stars - is proud of his first Tour of Rwanda: "Asthmatic bronchitis. Others would have quit, but I held on until the end".

But races are not just finishing orders, general or points classifications, flying finishes or mountain prizes. Races are sensations and emotions, episodes and experiences, stories and memories already made. Starting with the asthmatic bronchitis: "I've suffered from it since childhood. Here it exploded because in cars or vans we always travel with windows open. And it exploded. During the race, I couldn't breathe deeply. Like driving in third gear instead of fifth". So "I put myself at the team's disposal, the order was to stay in the group, even though in the first stage I would have had a chance when I was on the wheel of the one who attacked and went in the breakaway".

The toughest stage "the sixth, not a single km of tranquility, crosswinds, single file, no one was dropping, the level was high". The most beautiful stage "when we rode along Lake Kivu, marvelous panoramas, fantastic landscapes, for the little you can see during a race when you're head down". The most anticipated stage "the final one in Kigali on the World Championships course this year, steep sections and pavé, but under the rain, after a massacre (about thirty riders fell), amid controversies, modifications and finally neutralization - the race could have finished regularly - we raced for nothing".

Gasparini was enchanted by the people: "So many, I'd say all Rwandans on the roadside, festive, wild, enthusiastic, exultant, dancing, at the start, at the finish, along the route, especially the children who would escape from schools and rush to our passage". Impossible to forget "the transfers, to do 60 km it takes an hour and a half of jolts, bumps and shaking", impossible to forget "the refrigerator of our support car almost immediately empty, then they would pass water bottles at room temperature, that is, hot", impossible to forget "the Rwandan ups and downs are - minimum - three km of climb and three of descent, maybe already at an altitude of 2600 meters, in the end they resulted in Dolomite stage elevation changes".

Alessio is still in Rwanda: "In Kigali, in front of the Amahoro football stadium, in the 'house' of our team, single rooms, no kitchen but a restaurant. Time to recover, then on the 12th the flight to Italy, on the 16th the Popolarissima in Treviso, then three races in Slovenia, finally Morocco and Japan". Blessed, not always - one hopes - from second to last.