SESTRI LEVANTE – The topic of the junior category is a sensitive one and must be approached with due calm and care. On one hand, there are those who are afraid of "burning" the kids and would like to preserve their talent and qualities.Increasing training loads now is useful for winning in the short term, but a rider's career takes shape and weight later than 18 years of age. Winning a Tour of Lunigiana It's nice, it's a pleasure and it fills the mouths of those who raise these kids, but then there's the future to think about. Le youth categories they are used to train the rider, give him a hand so he can learn to manage certain dynamics.
In Italy, there are two factions: those who see current activity as an exasperation and those who believe it is the right path. The latter are often those who live on the boys' victories., building personal glory and establishing themselves as top-level technicians. But if everyone who manages these guys thinks about getting the best out of them, Whoever gets to the end will find himself with only the core in his hands.
Changing goals
Eros Capecchi He has 16 years of experience as a professional, his first year with the big boys was in 2006, in the ranks of Liquigas, at just 20 years old. The point to focus on is not the age at which you become a professional, although a little attention never hurts, but the proposed activity.
"In my opinion, we're struggling to change our mentality," says the CR Umbria coach, "in terms of preparation. We are very conservative, we don't "squeeze" the kids too muchBut in my opinion, what we're doing isn't squeezing them too much, but squeezing them badly.
«If you prepare them athletically and physically for what they now find in the race there is no risk of finishing them.This happens if they race and never see the finish line, because training becomes more and more of a sacrifice and living the life of a rider becomes even more burdensome. The calendar programming could be reviewed, as they do abroad».
So a period of competitions and then rest and training, a schedule of commitments.
It would also be important to say to those who decide on the races, the committees or even higher up the Federation itself: «We do six or seven well-organized races in a limited period, "A month, for example, and then a month of rest." This way, those who train the kids can work and give the hours they need. This way, the overall level of the juniors is raised, providing the national team coach with riders who can handle certain workloads.
To have a greater concentration of commitments, more stage races would be useful, which do a lot for the growth of the boys.
We realized this last year, when one of our riders broke away on the last day after four stages. The following Sunday he won. The work you do in a multi-day race is priceless, I was talking about it with the same SalvoldiIf we could combine the various one-day races into single events, we would make a big step forward.
But without overdoing the work at home…
Nowadays the juniors who are going strong train 23-25 hours a week, so if you want to reach that level the commitment you have to make is thisThe national team that goes on retreat in Livigno and puts in 25 hours of training a week is aiming to reach a level playing field with those who are winning now. If four guys work so hard, unfortunately, you have to adapt to be competitiveIt's sad to say, but if you're thinking about the well-being of the kids, you risk not letting them become riders, because that's the trend and it's already started.
Finn is the one who does this kind of activity for us, on a programming level.
He is the reference for youth cycling and works in an intelligent, meticulous way, planning training sessions month by month. It's proof that you can improve by training your kids well, without burning them out.This happens if we don't put them in the physical and athletic conditions to compete with the best at national and international level.
But if we're talking about an international level, we also have to do business abroad, then...
In the meantime, we must raise the national level. This gives an internal benefit to the category because everyone improves, but it needs to be done with races of 120-130 riders, not 50. If you manage to organize the calendar well, you give the teams the means to move while containing costs because you only make them do it once and not every week.
Because the issue of extremely limited budgets also comes into play.
Here, as soon as you start up the van and two flagships, you spend 500 or 600 euros. Finding staff is not that easyI can move because I have a family business and I can carve out days to look after the kids. But others give up. The laws made on contributions linked to those who collaborate with sports activities are killing the teamsEven for the slightest thing, higher taxes can arise, and then people prefer to back out because it's not worth it.
