It became evident yesterday, reading the track calls: next to the name of Elisa Balsam that of the is indicated Trek-Segafredo and no longer that of the Flames Gold. The world champion has resigned from the State Police, probably in light of the contract and for consistency with the professional status, following up on the prophetic words of Rubens Bertogliati about WorldTour teams and military sports groups.
«We treat them like professionals – the Swiss had said about his UAE Team Adq – even if In Italy this figure is not contemplated, which is why many girls are included in the military corpsThey are top professionals, and it's possible to work with those sports groups, but some limits will need to be set to resolve the situation in the girls' best interests. I hope that from 2023-2024 the UCI will resolve this anomaly, professionalism must be the same for everyone."
The news had been in the air for a while, but out of a sort of respect it was decided not to talk about it. The same choice was made at the time by Giorgia Bronzini, when the Forestale was absorbed by the Carabinieri and to continue racing as a professional, the Piacenza native had to leave the force.
What's going on? Will the WorldTour shift undermine one of the cornerstones of Italian sport? And how was Elisa's decision received within the State Police? From what we understand from speaking with Nicola Assuntore, sports manager and technician of the cycling team, the fact that people are talking about it doesn't arouse much enthusiasmAnd this is precisely what makes us think that the blow was not light.
What happened?
Elisa was in a position to stay and, speaking personally, since I had been following her from the beginning, I was very sorry. She has made her choice and of course we wish her a great career and very good earnings.We spoke, but since there was no room for negotiation, in the end there hasn't been a meeting yetA real bolt from the blue.
Is anything changing in your policy?
We started in 2015, when women's cycling was in a niche. The girls received reimbursements of 600-700 euros and only the strongest earned better. Joining the Police was the way to have a future job prospect: becoming one day agents or technicians in the sports group that has grown a lot. So we started with the track and then the road, focusing on a series of girls that have grown like Longo Borghini and others who perhaps fell short of expectationsBut it's sport, it's part of the game. Barbieri, Bertizzolo, Cavalli, Confalonieri, Fidanza, Guazzini, and Longo Borghini are still racing with us.
But now there's the WorldTour...
Girls are experiencing this equalization with men in terms of salaries and some time ago we started to think that professional status was in conflict with membership of a police force. So intervened President Di Rocco who made an agreement with theUCI to allow double membership. A peculiarity of Italian sport, that's true.
Does the system work?
At the Tokyo Olympics, Fiamme Oro won 20 medals with 21 athletes (here the reporting. of the State Police, ed.). About 50 percent of Italy's medals. If we were a nation, in the world medal table we would have been in 17th place, ahead of Spain and HungaryWe have no problem following top level athletes, but that agreement ends in 2022 and now we will have to talk to President Dagnoni and Secretary General Tolu to understand if it is renewableThe choice is up to them, I don't deny that we would like to get to Paris 2024.
Are your focus the Games?
In the order: Olympics, World Championships and European Championships. We've always encouraged our athletes to do both road and track. In fact, for track athletes, road is a technical necessity. For a while, we even considered forming an independent sports group, but there were too many obstacles. In any case, Our logo is a stylized lion holding an Olympic torch and underneath it are the five rings. With the advent of the WorldTour, there will be some evaluations to be made.
What commitments do the athletes have with you?
to use our uniform at the Italian championships and participate in the high altitude training camp that we usually do at the beginning of the summer. We were born to support the national team's activities and we make sure that never go to overlap with that of the teams.
How was Elisa Balsamo's exit received by the highest levels?
I spoke with Senior Manager Francesco Montini, president of the Fiamme Oro Sports Groups. He has always been farsighted, He led Fiamme Oro to become the first multi-sports club in Italy, if not in the world, with 24 Olympic medals in 7 months. Due to his intuition, we also took on Stefania Costantini from women's curling, who became a member and then enrolled. We were hoping for a medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics, we weren't even thinking about gold. And we... We also talked a lot about women's cycling, in light of Elisa's decision, which for obvious reasons we preferred not to publicise too muchAny police officer can return the uniform, put the three required signatures, take the severance pay and leave. But we are the State Police, we don't want to become the transition team between juniors and elite, only to see them go if another team offers more.
Will anything change?
Investing becomes difficult, if you support them for years, they become strong and take them away from you. I feel sorry for the new recruits who won't have the opportunities other girls had in the past. We've cooled off a bit. The last ones to join were Guazzini and Fidanza, but that was a couple of years ago. Other things have changed, too.
What things?
Salvoldi's departure also needs to be understood. With him, a great project began that has borne excellent fruit. Dino is a great talent scout, an excellent coach and a… terrible group managerWe're friends, we talk often, and you don't know how many times I've told him to his face. The girls had reached the point where the Olympics and the World Championships were held in Montichiari for them to earn their place.They learned the names for the Tokyo Madison at midnight the day before. Guazzini there had to be. Vittoria will be the future of the track and in my opinion it must be the strong point of the madisonNo one else can prepare for sprints like her. Like Wiggins with Cavendish.
You'll have to talk to Villa, nothing too difficult in short...
In fact, I'll go there soon. For us nothing will change, except that next to Elisa Balsamo's name there will no longer be oursLuckily, we know that the other girls, from Longo Borghini to Confalonieri, including Marta Cavalli and Rachele Barbieri, intend to stay. Even Vittoria Guazzini, who recently changed agents. At Trek-Segafredo we still have Elisa Longo Borghini and Luca Guercilena cares about this relationship, so much so that he put the Police logo on the club's shirt.. In the same way we hoped to arrive with Elisa Balsamo at Paris 2024, unfortunately, however, this will not be the case.
