The first year at Q36.5 Pro Cycling Giacomo Nizzolo would have expected it differently. The race lasted only thirty-three days in total. After the difficult start, the first victory at the Sibiu Tour and the evils seemed to be behind usIn Spain, first at the Vuelta Castilla y Leon and then in Burgos, the pedal stroke had returned to good levels. The season finale was there to be… chewed over, with ambition and new strength.
«Then the last two months of racing – says Nizzolo while he is in the car – they didn't go as I expectedI was coming from a series of stage races, done to improve my condition in view of September and October. During one of the first one-day races I had scheduled, the Grand Prix d'Isbergues, I crashedThe result was that I developed an exposed inguinal hernia. So, on September 15th, I found myself with the season over and an operation to undergo. Two, in fact."
Restart
The surgeries the Q36.5 Pro Cycling sprinter underwent have now become two. Nizzolo has decided to include, during the weeks of inactivity, also the operation to fix the effects of a old fall.
"After having my inguinal hernia repaired," says Nizzolo, "I had the plates and screws removed that had been inserted to repair my tibial plateau fracture a good month early. An injury that dates back almost a year agoI was supposed to have this second operation in December, but I preferred to do it early so as not to waste any more time once I got back on my bike."
What kind of winter has it been so far?
Not easy, while I was standing still the others were moving forward And I knew I'd have to close the gap. I knew I had to optimize every workout to get back to a level that was suitable for competition.
What point do you feel you have reached?
I think I'm at 80 percent. I also think that the best condition is the result not of a single winter, but of years of work. Since I stopped, I lost this continuity and my growth process stopped.
The final step to get to 100 percent is missing.
It will be the most difficult one, but together with the team we decided that it is important to run, even though I know I will have to grow up.
Mentally, how much does this missing 20 percent weigh?
From this point of view, there is awareness. Clearly, I have no regrets, but it's like when you came back from school holidays and you knew you hadn't done your homeworkThe hope was that the teacher wouldn't ask you what you didn't know.
How does this awareness translate into competition?
My hope is to save myself with experience, trying to leverage my skills a bit. But I know it will be tough.
Where do you start running again?
Coming soon, from the Mallorca races. Then I will go to the Tour of Oman, Almeria and Belgium. From there, spring begins with the Tirreno-Adriatico and the Sanremo, but we'll also see how I respond once I'm back in the race.
Q36.5 saw some good riders arrive with a view to 2025, tom pidcock over all.
The evolution is tangible and brings a lot of motivation, even though the team is new to cycling, you can see that they want to improve and grow.
There's also talk of an invitation to some Grand Tours, Pidcock himself mentioned it, from this point of view, is there a sense of change in the air?
Yes, we do discuss things among ourselves, but it's not the riders who can say these things. I just think that our mentality should not change, we as Q36.5 must have the desire to grow and improve as we have done up to now.
