The general feeling, which is now turning into something more, is that the changes that have come to professional cycling in the post-Covid era have also cascaded down to the youth categories. First it was the turn of the under 23s, and the ones who paid the price were the teams that were unable or unwilling to keep up the pace.Now the wave of change is sweeping through the junior category, and the fate seems the same. The fear, for the writer almost a certainty, is that soon the shock will also reach the students.
In Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard it is said that everything must change for things to remain unchanged. Adapt to resist, without clinging to the ideologies that have guided the movement until now. Difficult to accept, probably, but the path seems clear. However, one should not passively endure everything, proposing and attempting to follow a path while dictating the steps to take can be a solution.
Learn
One of the companies that is trying to do all this is il Team Hyperfinish, a team in the student category based in Tuscany and which has Elia Favilli on its staff, a former professional with years of experience (standing on the right at the opening). First in the saddle and then as sports director.
«We hope the boys can have a good season – he hopes while we reach him on the phone – and by this I mean that they can have a progression and improvement from a physical, tactical and technical point of viewIn these years as sports director I have seen that many cycling schools, in the novice category, are behind in this respect."
What does it mean to be ready for the student category?
I started out as a sports director with very young players and I've always taught them tactics and what it means to train. I'm not talking about power zones or anything else, but just recognizing that there are different intensities and learning to manage them is something.Now among my students I find guys who don't downshift before a bend, and when they have to relaunch they get stuck and lose five meters. Which over the course of a race is all wasted energy.
They have to learn…
Cycling isn't just a physical outlet, there's a lot of technique and tactics involved. Children must be ready to receive information and make good use of it.For example, at Iperfinish we provide a power meter to all our athletes.
You've already touched on an important point, the tools...
What matters is how you use it. We don't go to extremes, but we teach how to use a tool that is now fundamental in modern cycling.Knowing it allows them to know how to use it and learn how to train. Our team provides the power meter, but I think it is important to make this investment privately as well.
Isn't there a risk of placing an ever-increasing burden on families and making this sport elitist?
Costs are quite high in every sport, we at Iperfinish charge a fee equal to that of a football school to enroll athletes. In my opinion, it is the sports directors and the teams who have to adapt to cycling.And since the next category, the junior category, is already an international benchmark, you have to be prepared. At least in terms of concepts. Maybe a team doesn't provide all the tools, but on a technical level the staff must be able to explain to the kids what they are doing and how, in order to cushion the jump.
The dividing line is lowering towards young people…
And it's quality that counts, not quantity. Train well and with the right commitmentMy players train thirteen hours a week, which is less than other clubs. Yet the results are there. When I took the second and third level sporting director courses, this concept stuck with me: the boys must be trained according to the effort they are going to make.
Meaning what?
If the races last two hours, then we should train them for that time and that effort. To do this, a tool like the power meter helps a lot.Why put a student on a bike for four hours? It's unnecessary; fewer hours are needed, but they're functional for what this category requires.
To do this, preparation is required on the part of the technicians.
Let's not hide it, now it's important to have concepts and convey them to the kids. Furthermore, we are in a category where From one month to the next an athlete can grow ten centimeters and gain three or four kilosIt's clear that you can't make everyone do the same exercises.
Is there a risk of losing those who mature later?
It exists. But we have to be good at calibrating training and loads to the latter, not the former. I have some boys who turned junior this year and I have deliberately kept them on reduced loads.There's no need to go to extremes, but to gradually increase. This way we can allow young people to grow and have long careers. Otherwise, we'll burn them out.
How real is the risk of seeing WorldTour teams also taking a stab at the youth category?
In my opinion we are going in this direction. Even among students, we will arrive at a dual level of cycling, with those who are already ready to do a certain activity and then everyone else. The thing to do is to be good and understand that we must give everyone the opportunity to grow and mature.By lowering the selection age, we risk making the chronological age no longer match the biological age.
Explain to us…
If I have a fifteen-year-old boy who is 170 centimeters tall and weighs 60 kilograms, he is at a higher biological age than one who is 150 centimeters tall and weighs 45 kilograms. But in the end, what is better: a rider who gains 100 watts of FTP one time or one who consistently increases by 20 watts every year? The answer seems easy to me.
The fact is that we too are now at risk of losing these kids...
True, but if you cycle consciously and teach this sport following the right principles you will understand it. It's not your victories as a sophomore or junior that determine who you are.I raced against Rafal Majka when he was a junior in Tuscany, and I won races against him. Except that Majka ended his career at the Lombardia this year, while I did in 2016.
What is the relationship between kids and everything that surrounds cycling?
Everything weighs less on them, they have a lot of information and are predisposed, mentally prepared. They are careful about what they eat, they don't mind training camps or training with different tools. (for example, rollers, ed.) We've reached a point where if a kid is talented, we can see it thanks to tools and data. But this shouldn't override creativity, tactics, and technique.
Il relationship limit is it at risk of disappearing even among students?
It wouldn't be such a drastic thing, over the years I've seen so many guys and I can say that there is a physiological limit rather than a relationship oneYoung riders athletes can't push beyond certain values, so the gap wouldn't be that big.
