It's finally here. Lorenzo Rota He won his first professional race! It seems incredible given how good a rider he is, but it's true. The victory came in the second stage of the Sazka Tour, a short stage race in the Czech Republic.
We had left Rota on the verge of tears in that day AlberobelloThat day, few were as hungry for victory and that title as he was. Of the WorldTour riders at the start, he was undoubtedly the hungriest.
Yet that time too he was second.
«I've been trying for a long time – the Lombard told us – I took it well at the Line of Business after the defeat by oldani, but not this time either."
First victory
On the ramps of Pustevny, pearl of the mountains between Silesia and Moravia, and a stone's throw from the Slovakian border and more precisely from the house of History, Rota's history took another course.
«I know that this victory is not an Italian or a San Sebastian – says Rota – But winning is… always winning! I've been looking for it for a long time. That zero in the box was weighing heavily on me. What can I say: I'm happy!
«I hope from now on I'll be able to unlock myself and not make any more mistakes in the final stages of the race».
«That day in Alberobello, my disappointment It wasn't so much because of that circumstance but because the "hits" were starting to get too many. And it piles up, piles up... I had reached my limit.But now, with a cool head, I also say that I was tired, not very lucid. And maybe I would behave differently."
And his clarity is evident right from the start and in the way he recounts yesterday's victorious finale.
"We're a strong team here, and we wanted a tough race. We'd been working all day, especially on the climbs. Then, at the end, there was this challenging 7,5-kilometer climb. The tactic was for me to attack at 4,5 km from the finish, and so I did. Ironically, he followed me. Filippo Zana. At that point, since we had the numerical superiority, I gave up. Then Taaramae took action.
"I thought he would win because he had gained 25 seconds. Instead, the others pulled away. So at 400 meters we caught him, I started at 300 and… it went well!».
The finish was quite tight. But Rota and the others knew it well, partly because they had already passed it during the race (except for a turn a little before the finish line) and because it was the same finish as the previous year. But he didn't lack composure.
The rebirth
But let's take a step back. Let's return to where this victory most likely originated. He left Alberobello feeling disappointed. But the next day, Lorenzo already had the attitude of someone who had started working hard again. The altitude, the return to racing, more good finishes, the work for the team... Until today.
"After Italian," Rota continues, "I stayed a few days in Puglia. My family has a house near Ostuni: a bit of relaxation, the sea... absolute rest. I needed to completely unplug. To reset everything.
After those days in Puglia, Rota got back to work. He went to the Bernina Pass, where he stayed for 15 days. From there, he returned to racing.
"I returned to the Tour de Wallonie, where I finished fourth. I was a little disappointed with this race: I thought the route would be a little tougher. Then I insisted on going to San Sebastian, but there wasn't much recovery time between the two races. Not to mention that the last stage was full of cobblestones. And it made itself felt.
«In fact, in San Sebastian I wasn't feeling very good, but I still managed to get into the top ten».
Revised details
Rota is a serious professional, someone who works hard and pays attention to detail. And perhaps this very pursuit of perfection has changed something, hopefully permanently.
He himself asked his trainer to review some details.
«He follows me Luca Quinti – says Rota – he introduced him to me Fausto MasnadaI've been working with Luca for three years and I have to say that I've been at a good level for three years. So the credit goes to him too. And to the team (the Intermarche Wanty Gobert, ed.) which gives me the possibility of having an external coach.
"Not all teams do it, but they've understood that sometimes the mental stability a coach can give you also matters. And I talk to Luca a lot; I trust him. When we don't completely agree on certain things, we talk things over."
«Precisely because he is meticulous, Afterwards, the Italian reviewed and analyzed the files of all my sprints and we realized that in recent years we had worked a lot on climbing and little on this kind of effort. So I'd lost some momentum. Since the last training camp, we've reviewed a few things and started working a bit more on the minute, the two-minute sprint."
And apparently it worked, dear Lorenzo.
