Giulio Pellizzari began this year’s Giro d’Italia as the second favorite with bookmakers to win it, a joyful young man carrying the hopes of home fans to end their unprecedented 10-year drought.But three weeks is a long time in bike racing.The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe co-leader finished in 21st place, “dying” with illness for the race’s second half and wounded by social-media comments. He told journalists after the finish in Rome that he was going to burn all his jerseys and race numbers, so he wouldn’t have any memories of the Grand Tour.Talking to The Athletic ahead of the Tour of Slovenia, which began on Wednesday, Pellizzari makes it clear he didn’t literally do that.“The interview was face-to-face, with Eurosport, and it was clear that I was just joking, smiling. I always joke, and one thing that I learned from this Giro is I cannot be honest anymore. I have to say what they (the media) want to hear,” he says.“It came out as really hard words, but it’s just a bike race; burning the jersey is not respectful to the race and everybody.”The 22-year-old is still quick to crack a smile, but the residual Giro pain is clear: “Going from stage seven on the wheel of (Jonas) Vingegaard on Blockhaus, him and me, to a week later, I was dropped on the climbs with (Jonathan) Milan and (Tim) Merlier. Mentally, it was really hard. I suffered a lot.“In the last week of the Giro, I started saying to my sports director I didn’t want to race (this week in Slovenia),” he adds. “I just wanted to stay away from cycling for a bit of time. But then they said, ‘Trust us. It will be better’.”Pellizzari spent most of his post-Giro downtime not thinking about cycling.He had a week relaxing with a close friend in his central Italian hometown of Camerino, enjoying the occasional cake and gelato. The next was spent at the home of his girlfriend, fellow professional cyclist Andrea Casagranda, who races for Vini Fantini-BePink, 300 miles to the north. “Also to go away from home, because everybody was asking me about the Giro,” he says, laughing.Pellizzari on stage five of the Giro, before illness kicked in (Luca Bettini / AFP via Getty Images)Pellizzari had lined up in Bulgaria at the start of the Giro well-prepared and confident, off the back of two stage wins and the overall title at the Tour of the Alps in April. But he believes his physical condition was only at “80 per cent” there.He and Jai Hindley were Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe co-leaders: “The (Giro) goal was to be on the podium, but dreaming of more. Of course, inside, I’m realistic — it was 99 per cent impossible to win the Giro — but I want to dream big because I think we must have big dreams, especially because I’m young and I have time.”The race’s first week went well for Pellizzari, even though he lost 1.05 to Vingegaard, falling back after following the Team Visma-Lease a Bike rider’s initial attack on Blockhaus on stage seven.