TERRE DI LUNI – Our presence at the 48th edition of the Giro della Lunigiana allowed us to see the area even more closely and for more days world of juniors (opening photo Duz Image / Michele Bertoloni). For a long time now this slice of cycling has acquired ever-increasing importance, becoming, to all intents and purposes, the reference category. From here the teams, WorldTour and otherwise, take the best kids with the aim of making them grow through their youth teams.However, it happens that the mechanism leads to a constant search for gold and, as happens with the noble metal, the risk is that of digging ever deeper.
Everything right away
This is how some were born satellite team o development Even among the juniors. Bahrain Victorious has the Cannibal Team, Bora has the Grenke Auto Eder, and Decathlon has the U19 team, from which it has selected the last two winners of the Lunigiana: Bisiaux and Seixas.
At the presentation of the teams in Lerici, on the occasion of the beginning of the Tour of Lunigiana, Dmitri Konychev had emphasized. The former Russian champion recalled how many 14-year-olds seem to be about to conquer the world only to stop at the first hurdle. With him on stage there was also Stefano Garzelli, who managed a junior team in Spain, and then close it at the end of 2023.
«For me this is a very worrying movement – explains Garzelli – because the I have to team up They'll go and get the best juniors. And now it's about having eight kids, maybe in the future they'll get to 10 or 12. A boy's ambition is to go running there because he thinks he's already there., he thinks he's already a champion, perhaps. But not all of these will go pro, maybe now they do because there are so few teams. But in the future they will increase and the possibilities will become less and less.The risk is that the kids will then see the failure to pass as a failure. turning it into an “I’m not good.” Will they be ready to process this fact? I don't think so, they'll just stop running."
Advance research
It is easy to understand that the race is for the students, the category that precedes the juniors. Kids treated like champions or even phenomena, with bikes and uniforms identical to those of the professional team. A small group of young people who live like the big boys, but who aren't. They're going fast, as you can see on the roads, at the last Giro della Lunigiana. Lorenzo Finn e Paul Seixas they have disintegrated every climbing time of previous years. But are they ready to live with and endure pressures that risk making them tired of cycling at 18?
«I spoke to a team manager of a junior team – continues Garzelli – and he was already talking about 2026. He told me that he has to look among the students otherwise he risks not making the team anymoreIf this is the mechanism, we'll soon be recruiting new talent. The risk is that in seven or eight years we won't have a foundation anymore, but if you have nothing underneath, how can you build on top?
Blinding the boys
The problem is that a similar mechanism leads kids to think that reality is different. A junior wants to get into a I have to team up otherwise he thinks he has failed.
«In Spain – continues Garzelli – in the group the boys say that now among the juniors you either go to a devo or you're finishedIt's the worst thing in the world. And it risks destroying all the national junior teams, because some kids would rather quit than continue on with the "regular" teams. But not everyone has the same growth rates and in a smaller team they give you time to mature. The talents, Lorenzo Finn For example, they'll find their way anyway. We need to work with the kids who have smaller numbers with dedicated activities to allow them to grow. Whoever rides in a WorldTour satellite team has everything: a trainer, a nutritionist, better equipment.But what's his room for growth? Very little, if any. If I already train 26 hours as a junior, how many do I need to do as a professional, 40?
Knowing how to lose
Rumors have been circulating in recent weeks that Jarno Widar, Belgian rider of the Lotto Dstny Development Team, is parting ways with the team following the disappointment of the Tour de l'Avenir. The Belgian, in his first year as an under-23, won in order: Alpes Isere Tour, Giro Next Gen e Tour of the Aosta ValleyA haul we have rarely seen collected by an 18-year-old boy in his first year in the category. Yet the creaking of the Tour de l'Avenir seems to have broken the painting and its frameIt's true that when you see the cake on the table you want to eat it all, but you also have to know how to be satisfied and eat a few slices.
“If you don’t have room for growth,” Garzelli continues, “when you move on you no longer get the same results. Because now you're giving it your all and then you move on, but then you will have nothing left to give and the level will be so high that you will necessarily find people who have the same or greater values as you. For this reason we must learn to lose, or rather, to manage the lack of victory.Widar is an example, he didn't know how to handle the defeat against Avenir and instead of rolling up his sleeves and starting over, he turned his back on the team."
Winning mentality
The kids we see battling it out on the roads of international and domestic races are learning to manage the race, to win, and are developing a mentality geared toward this. But what happens if once they pass they stop doing it?
"Athletes run and do so with victory in mind," he concludes, "and rightly so. But steps are needed. A junior who turns professional and plays in a small group for the entire first year and maybe even the second, risks losing his winning mentality.Markel Beloki, Joseba's son, moved up from the juniors to EF Easy Post and never saw the front of the pack throughout 2024. The ability to manage certain situations on the run fades after a while. Instead, if I win as a junior, then I move up to under 23 and I put myself into play again and so on, mentally I keep myself on track.
My concern stems from the fact that Italy doesn't have any WorldTour teams. This means that the best rider goes abroad and the foreign team protects its local talents. We risk losing themWe need to remind kids that their well-being also depends on those who protect them, not just those who make promises."
