It was the first day of spring, March 21, 2022, when Colbrelli saw the slightly uphill straight opening up in front of him with the arrival of Sant Feliu de Guixols right at the topTour of Catalonia, first stepMatthews on the right side, he on the left towards second place. He doesn't remember much about that day, except that After the sprint the light went out and when someone miraculously managed to turn it back on, his running career was over..
Retirement from racing
Just today Colbrelli has announced his retirement from racingThe story goes that the nurse who revived him actually performed a miracle, bringing him back to life. Il defibrillator which was subsequently implanted to avoid dramatic relapses prevents him from obtaining the suitability. And so, having taken the necessary time, Sonny has announced that there will be no more races for him. The 2021 of dreams remains in the archive, at the height of an 11-year professional career. With victories here and there, then the Italian championship of Imola, the Benelux Tours, the European Championship in Trento andhellish Roubaix of October. A few days before, He finished 10th at the World Championships in Leuven, bent by that genius Alpahilippe.
Sonny and Davide
Curiously, for that sometimes inexplicable irony, his career in blue coincided with that of Davide Cassani, who first called him up as a professional in Ponferrada and then did so four more times. In Doha, Bergen, Harrogate and Leuven. And precisely We asked Davide to retrace his years with Colbrelli.
«I was kind of expecting him to make this announcement – says the Romagnol – because it was a very serious thingSonny was my first and last captain. He was my star man in Ponferrada, even though he was very young, and then he was my captain in Flanders too. So in the end my experience in the national team coincided with his.
«In Ponferrada he was 30 meters short and he could have finished not thirteenth, but in the top five. While in Flanders we found a superlative Alaphilippe. But results aside, it is one of the kindest and most generous guys I've ever met among my Azzurri and, especially in the last period, he has grown mentally."
You have seen his change firsthand.
Perhaps At first he was a little afraid of not being up to the task, he probably felt the pressure. In 2021 it was a different Sonny, who he wasn't afraid of anything. In the last two years it has come to a balance and an awareness of one's own strengths very different from the early days.
He achieved his first truly important victory with you at the European Championships in Trento…
Indeed he had already won the Italian championship and then at the European championship he was exemplary, because in the end he managed to beat EvenepoelThe only way we could do that was to run like that. And then he told me that those were perhaps among the hardest 5 kilometers of his life. Keep Evenepoel It wasn't easy, it was a phenomenon. In that case he proved to be truly a champion, because that day we raced for him and he won.
It's always sad when a career ends like this, but do you think he could have become one of the great Italian classics riders?
I'm sure of it, because he had truly managed to find an extraordinary balance. You want the family, you want the help he got from others, he managed to untie those little knots that had prevented him from achieving great successes. And the beautiful thing is that he still managed to do it over the years, without ever giving up, without ever giving upHe's always been a fighter, a tenacious one. It seemed his weakness was his character, which sometimes prevented him from achieving great successes. So his ability was that, however, he succeeded with patience, good will and with punctiliousness, probably working on his weaknesses, to become what he became.
And what had it become?
He won the Italian, he won the European, he won the Roubaix and do you remember how he won the Benelux Tour? In 2021 he truly had a stratospheric year. It was the classic example of a rider who, knowing his weaknesses, managed to overcome them calmly and carefully.
Where were you the day you fell ill?
I was at home and Alessandra Giardini called me, asking if I had heard anything. That's how I found out, then I let some time pass and called himI had a really special relationship with Sonny and Trentin, the riders who were closest to me. Tonight I'm in Salò at the book presentation and he will be there too..
Do you see him still having a role in cycling?
In my opinion, he still has to understand too. In life, I think I can say this, when you realize that the end of a cycle is coming, you start to think about it.A year before, a year and a half before, two years. So I think he has to still metabolizing this change, which has been truly radical. Given his experience and his character, he can become a sports director, but perhaps also an important man within a team or companyBecause he has the passion, the attention, and everything he needs. He must understand and above all study what he can do and then do it well..
Maybe the past seven months are still not enough…
I think he's been through some tough times. You find yourself having solved all your problems, You figured out how to win the big races and then from one day to the next everything stopsAnd when it ends, you still have to find a balance. I think he may have found it again, because he's always been a positive person. I think that in this case too, Sonny will have gone to see the glass half full, because the important thing is that he is still here.
In short, we turn the page...
I am more and more convinced, I see it in myself too, that what you sow you reap. And Sonny has always sown very well, because he is truly a nice person, a generous, a true manHe has everything he needs. So, once he's assimilated everything and has the various solutions in front of him, he'll also have the opportunity to choose what he'll do.
