Elena Pirrone She's the present and future of Italian women's cycling. The Bolzano native is coming off a couple of seasons that haven't been at their best. Two years of chasing the condition, but winning a time trial and road world championship isn't a coincidence (it happened in 2017 when she was a junior). It means the athlete has the potential, and just needs to adapt to the change in category. Furthermore, the unusual season certainly didn't help her, and she suffered more than others from quarantine.
His sporting director at Valcar, Davide Arzeni He says that Elena never backs down, that she is a born fighter and at the same time a generous girl towards the team.
Cycling in the DNA
«In fact – says Elena – I was accustomed to attacking since she was little, to run the race and not to suffer it. I'm impulsive. And that's not good, even if sometimes, on impulse, you get good results or maybe you catch the right breakaway. Davide tells me to think a little more, but it's not easy to do that in those few seconds of the race, when you have to decide whether to go or not.
Pyrrho is a complete cyclistShe's certainly fast on the pace, and even on shorter climbs she's tough to break away from. She's what you'd call a climbing rouleur.
Her history with cycling began at a very young age. We smile when she tells us that becoming a cyclist was already written in her DNA.
«It's genetics! My mom Barbara he ran. My uncles and my dad did the same, RenatoHe was first a competitor and then an amateur. Arzeni tells me: come to Roubaix, with your mother's surname, Moser (even if with a different accent), you can win it!
I fell in love with this sport watching my dad. I'd been accompanying him to races since I was 10 months old. As a little girl, I'd watch the group whizz by, and all those colors of jerseys and bikes were... captivating. Only I just wanted to challenge dad with my red tricycle, I'm still fond of him. And he told me: wait until you grow up. So after insisting, they signed me up for a local team, Alto Adige."
Only big goals
Elena is maturing, she wants to leave behind the difficulties she's been dragging along since quarantine. She'd been sick, it wasn't COVID, but she'd had to stop.
I want to start seeing some real results. I didn't stop completely in the fall, as I was off for five weeks in May. For now, I still don't do many climbs. I usually prefer shorter ones of 3-4 kilometers, but where I live, there's a wide choice. If I have to do longer ones, I go for the Mendola or towards the Renon plateauAs I said, in autumn I rested but without giving up completely, also because In my head there are the classic Nordschleife, the Ardennes above all. And I also have a little hope for Tokyo. Not to mention that the Europeans then they will take place at home and then there are also the world».
Tokyo, European Championships, World Championships, Classics: all big goals. A sign of a winning mentality. To achieve them, Pirrone is also working hard on his mental health: improving his tactics, improving his management of his life as an athlete, and paying close attention to his nutrition.
"I've realized," Elena says, "that weight is what makes the difference. And if I've struggled to get into shape over the last two years, it was because of that. Once this is sorted out, I'm sure I'll be fine."
Longo Borghini in the heart
«Elisa She's my idol. We're a bit alike. She always attacks, she tries, she never gives up... I'm a bit faster. One thing that really excites me is that when we both run for the Police We have the same helmet, the same glasses and sometimes they say to me: I mistook you for Elisa. And I get starry eyes! I also really like them Elena Cecchini e Tatiana Guderzo. She at the world championship Innsbruck (Elena's first elite finish, ed.) really helped me a lot. But, no offense to the others, Elisa is my first.
And among the foreigners?
«Van der Breggen – she says without thinking – she has a unique style, always composed and very agile. And the Van Vleuten: You have to shoot her to slow her down! When she stands up on the pedals... bye. We trained together in Livigno. We did the Gavia and then she continued on to the Mortirolo. She has a mind: if she has to score ten, she scores ten. I don't think we Italians lack anything compared to them; if anything, they have other facilities and more women's teams, and that's what makes the difference overall."
