Among the many positive performances that Italy achieved at the European Track Championships in Konya, those of Federica Venturelli they lend themselves to further analysis, especially in anticipation of what may come. It's a bit like the fate of the girl in UAE ADQ Team, seen as a phenomenon already by the youth categories. In Turkey, Venturelli collected podiums in the team pursuit, individual pursuit and Madison together with Elisa BalsamoAnd this last bronze has opened up interesting prospects.
Marco Villa has always followed the girl, so much so that he included her in the world championship team last year, giving her a new push and even making her the only one returning from the world triumph in the team that took bronze in Konya. «With her we have a method that we use for everyone, in these years we have demonstrated that we are not interested in the egg today, but the chicken tomorrow., so with Federica we are going in this direction, as it was with Ganna, with Milan, with the others. We know that these are girls who also have activities with WorldTour teams, they have significant schedules and workloads, so we try to keep pace with them."
How does Federica respond?
With her, even though she has already shown us some great things in the junior category, such as the world record in pursuit and the world title in madison, We were cautious, especially since he had some bad injuries over the last two years., collecting practically a month and a half of road activity in the entire two-year period.
Do you think this slowed down his maturation?
Let's say we worked well this year, but she only reached the event after retiring from the road. These results, achieved with these relative loads, suggest that with the WorldTour activity that awaits her from now on, she can make a further leap in quality. Therefore, her road season will be very important, and we will be following her closely.
The Madison race with Elisa, what did it tell you in particular, beyond the bronze medal won from a technical point of view, about their harmony, their behavior?
They both know their trade, they have experience, and they were in the same situation: a year and a half without new experience in the American team due to injuries. They raced, trying to stay out of the group's "mess," even spending a little more. We need to work a bit on the technique, if we had made shorter changes we could have taken the turn and with 20 points we would have been silver, but the jury had an impact there, because we arrived four laps from the end at the tail end of the last cars, but the sprint started and the tail end of the group broke away, so they didn't give us the lap we gained, but the lap we lost to the four in front.
A question that arose especially on social media immediately after her performances: Could Federica be a good asset for the omnium, considering that she's an athlete who focuses heavily on pursuit, so perhaps her characteristics are different from those needed in that type of event?
No, Federica can do any race. Thanks to fiorin, who as a student also makes them run in Grenchen, in Novo Mesto. The athletes who graduate from Fiorin are versatile. Federica is one of them. Besides having a great motor, she's also fast and has everything it takes to excel in the omnium.Logically, we need to understand step by step where to aim.
Since we're in the Olympic season, Federica is considered one of the top Italian prospects for Los Angeles 2028, regardless of sport, if the focus were on the omnium. Would it be worth starting a project now to help her gain the necessary confidence for the event in two years?
Here's where we need to clarify a few things. Meanwhile, the same goes for the others: Balsamo, Guazzini, Paternoster, ConsonniWe have many athletes on whom we can and must work. But you have to be part of the quartet, because the new Olympic qualification rules would give us 5 places plus 1, so we will go back to the Tokyo 2020 rules.We have two and a half years to work on it, with plenty of competitions between cups and title events. Meanwhile, for this year's Cup, we'll go to Tokyo as a full team, and in the other two, we'll participate with just two girls in the group events, to score ranking points. But returning to Venturelli, there's a parallel discussion with the road...
Or?
I look at her with special attention also for road races, time trials, and the Team Relay that for once I would like to run as a complete team, with all our best players and in their best shape to win the rainbow jersey. I have already had the availability of the Longo Borghini as of Ganna, Similar, Fridge, The same Barons I'd like to see it back as we left it before the accident. With Federica we will work on the track both for the quartet and for the group races but also for the time trial, applying a discussion made especially with Ganna and we know well where it ended up…
