Elisa Longo Borghini's words on the women's World Cup have sparked some food for thought. Among these, one concerns Silvia Persico and her being (perhaps) tired after the Giro and the Tour.
«He's still young – Elisa said – maybe he's not doing super heavy workloads yet. He did 10 days of the Giro at full speed, then two weeks to recover, then another very tough week at the Tour..It could be that I arrived at the World Cup a little tired."
Silvia Persico is currently enjoying her well-deserved holidays, so we thought we'd to delve deeper into the discussion with Davide “Capo” Arzeni: his coach, who was also its sports director at Valcar-Travel & Service and now to the UAE Team Adq (in the opening photo the two are together shortly after the arrival of the World Cup).
Could what “Longo” says be true?
Silvia's main goal was the Giro, while she came to the Tour to prepare for the World Championships. But she's naturally determined to always give it her all. It would have been enough if he hadn't held on to the Tourmalet, for example.So maybe she didn't leave the Tour physically tired, but rather mentally. Because the general classification and the stages are a big deal. This aspect will certainly need to be reviewed in the future.
Also because his 2023 season also started with cross-country.
I am a cross-country supporterI even have a tattoo. But it's clear that the new road calendar isn't helping, and we need to have the courage to change our minds. It starts at the beginning of February from UAE Tour, which is a very important race for us and so we go with the best athletes. Silvia is one of these, so she will definitely have to give up on a real cross-country season. We haven't defined anything yet, but we are oriented in this direction.
Does not having a real season mean doing less of it or not doing it at all?
The problem is that we are in Italy.Belgium and Holland can do it in terms of preparation, but there they have all the best tests within a few kilometers.. Cross-country skiing as preparation for Silvia could mean taking part in some races here, however If he has to start making trips back and forth to Belgium, everything becomes more complicated..
Until now, Silvia was the young woman who did a thousand things. Now she has to choose her goals?
We were talking about it these days. She would also like to participate in theOlympiad and with those the objectives begin to be many, so some choices will have to be made. Cross-country skiing may also be a factor: it's been talked about for years, but it is not an Olympic discipline.
We've seen her as a climber, going strong in Flanders: what's her size? Or is she destined to ride the entire calendar?
No, it doesn't have to go everywhere, and that hasn't been the case this year either. But it's true that It can be good for Flanders, as well as for Liège and even the GiroMaybe she sees herself more in the Flanders Classics, because she likes them more, with the exception of Roubaix. In our small way, when Valcar was around, we focused more on the Flemish Classics, and they stuck with her. At the last Flanders he finished fourth...
You're his coach, does he have room for growth?
I say yes, but I have to make some choices. This year he ran the world cross championship and the next day it's a sprint from Hoogerheide to the Emirates, going from minus five Dutch degrees to 27 Arab degrees. I think she will be sad to give up cross-country skiing, as I am, but I think it is an inevitable choice if we want to aim for certain objectives.
Have you talked again about the World Cup and the journey you took to get there?
I'm leaving her alone these days, but we'll definitely talk about it. This year has also been special for the calendar. From June 28th, when the Italian championships took place, we arrived at the world championships and in 50 days the Giro and the Tour were also included.Next year there are the Olympics, but the Tour Femmes it will be later and if I'm not mistaken There will be more or less a month between the end of the Giro and the start of the TourThe Olympics in between will take away a lot of energy, but it's only one day and you'll recover quickly.
Do you think Silvia is worth investing in due to the general rankings?
The level has really risen a lot, This year Silvia's values in terms of watts are the same as last year, maybe a little more, but the rankings are very different. However, if we take into account the fact that it has room for growth, the yellow jersey could be the consequence of winning a few stages and not a real goalI see her more as a stage chaser. This year she did a great time trial, but compared to some athletes over the 22km distance, she was penalized.
Over the last three years, have you increased your workload much?
Obviously we have always continued to progress, also because he is now in full maturity (Persico turned 26 in July, ed.) She had some years where she wasn't physically well and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. Once everything was resolved, the results arrived and with them the conviction.
If he hadn't done the Tour, could you have imagined an alternative approach to the World Championships?
There are different schools of thought, because by not doing the Tour there was the risk of arriving with little race pace in the legsAnd so the choice was made, following the same path as last year, also because the women do not have what the Tour of Poland can be for the men. More than anything, it was the World Cup being held at the wrong time that messed everything up. Anyway, it seems to me that he's had a good season so far.
Longo Borghini says he was wrong to follow Kopecky's first shots.
In my opinion the mistake was something else and when you're not 100 percent it's better not to do it. He followed the first attack of Van VleutenI think if she hadn't done it, she could have finished in the top 7-8. Maybe not on the podium, but definitely in the top 10. Rather, someone I have never seen go so fast was Chiara Consonni, who did the Giro and the Tour and then also the track world championship.
But at the Tour she didn't hold out like Persico...
That's exactly what I was saying before. In my opinion, Silvia's choice for the future could be to to rank in one of the two Tours, focusing on the stages in the otherI think we can do really well this way.
