With the end of the year, it's time to take stock, and cycling doesn't deviate from tradition. But we went to see what lies beyond the races, victories, and champions. We went searching among the peloton (opening photo by ASO/Pauline Ballet)., trying to read the statistical numbers in a different way and discovering a side of Italian cycling that was almost unsuspected, even science fiction until just a few years ago.
Italians, cycling-wise, are a nation of migrants, far more so than any other sport. There are over 2.400 riders worldwide (including those registered with WorldTour teams, professional teams, and the vast continental championships), of whom over a hundred are Italian. We went through the rosters of all these teams and discovered that there are over 110 Italian riders registered with foreign teams. There are many more than those who operate in Italian teams: in 2022, we had 3 professional teams and 13 continental teams, but it must be considered that some of these are packed with foreign riders. What is striking is the percentage, well above 50 percent.
Italy like Brazil?
There are no sports even remotely comparable: In football, only in recent years have local players been going abroad, Even considering those playing in the minor leagues or semi-professional leagues, the overall number is higher, but in percentage terms it's nowhere near the cycling figure. The same can be said about basketball; suffice it to say that there are only three Italians in the top league, the NBA, and one of them was born and raised there, even though he holds an Italian passport.
The feeling, to make a more fitting comparison, compares the Italian cycling movement to what happens for South American footballers, Brazilians in particular., who then go on to fill teams in over half the world, in Europe as in Asia or North America. Just as they know that to make a career out of football they have to emigrate, the same happens for our cyclists and in fact more and more young people, perhaps just out of junior activity, are packing their bags (the cases of Belletta e Mattio al Team Jumbo-Visma Development are just the latest sign).
The Fondriest precedent
Looking closely at the history of cycling, it is a Copernican revolution. The Italian movement had always been strongly autarchic, there was a strong core of professional teams that absorbed all the best from the youth systemsAnyone with a good memory cannot help but remember the stir caused by Maurizio's transfer. fondryest to Panasonic, but no one at the time would have thought that through that gap Italian cycling would emerge so transformed.
Let's be clear: it's not only the people who move abroad Ganna, Trentino, CarusoSearching through the more than 100 continental teams from 61 countries, one discovers almost unbelievable stories. There's Danilo Celano who found a home in Malaysia, becoming famous for his 2020 Tour de Langkawi victory. Or Lorenzo Masciarelli, who moved with his family to Belgium to learn the art of cyclocross, completely changing his life. Or Kevin Piece of Brown He went to Austria, but now he's returned to Italy, to escape the family circle of champions with high-sounding names and grow in humility as a rider and, above all, as a man. What can I say about Peter? Cevini, a globetrotting rider between Ireland, Russia and Poland who will set off again from the latter country in 2023 to continue making ends meet.
The situation among women
Not that the situation is much different in the women's world. Even in this field, the lack of a WorldTour team, the end point of a true national pipeline where the best talent can land, has a profound impact. Virtually all of our champions are competing abroad, from the award-winning duo Balsamo-Longo Borghini in the American Trek Segafredo at Cavalli star of the FDJ Futuroscope: in 2022 there were 20 Italians in the teams of the top circuit and in the coming year there will be even more, just think of theUAE Team Adq, which will have 8 Italian players in its ranks, exactly half of the team.
But it's not just them. There are also athletes who have made very specific choices, like Gaia. Tortolina who has built her own team and her own life in Belgium, or Alessia Bulleri, an Elban who, after a successful mountain biking career, became one of the leaders of the Spanish team Eneicat. Up until the latest case of the very young Deborah Silvestri and Emanuela Zanetti, emigrated to Spain to join the newly formed Zaaf Cycling.
We lack a local team
The impression is that this trend is far from being reversed. Many young people who intend to undertake this difficult path are well aware that sooner or later they will have to leave and immerse themselves in a reality totally different from our own. Then it will be up to them, their talent, and their results to assert themselves, at least until we return to having an Italian-branded team in the top division. It's in Formula 1, sailing, and motorcycle racing—why can't it happen in the homeland of cycling?
