Traveling with Gianetti, through the snow and the desert

Gianetti arrived in the Emirates in 2014 and certainly not to build the team that would win the Tour. They asked him to working on a project to get people down there on bikes, who, due to the climate and well-being, did not enjoy exactly the best health. He came from dramatic shipwreck of a beautiful Chinese project, which through the agreement with TJ Sport Consultation would have brought important resources to the Lampre of the time. It seemed all done, but the sudden death of the Eastern referent stopped any possible development.

Today Mauro Gianetti is the big boss of the UAE Team Emirates and perhaps, as we will see, saying it like this will sound reductive. Professional rider from 1986 to 2002, 17 victories including an Amstel and Liège, after various experiences as a team manager, landed in the Emirates in 2014. Our ideal journey begins from there and ends on the podium of the Champs-Elysees, while Mauro is really travelling and driving at 30 miles an hour behind a snowplow, looking down there, in the desert of the Emirates.

Was the situation really that precarious?

They did not have a healthy lifestyle, let's say. Diabetes was spreading like wildfire and there was a need for intervention from schools, to reap long-term benefits. So we began to design cycle paths and infrastructure And, in recent years, cycling has become a very important sport. The team could be a motivation for young people, and this has actually happened, with the desire to emulate the champions. But really... professionalism is the tip of the icebergA flywheel has been set in motion. They have arrived sponsors with the desire to invest in the area, developing projects for slow mobility and changing the country's lifestyle. With the Youth Academy We went into schools and the response from people was incredible..

We've seen photos of bike paths…

The one on which the time trial will be run Uae Tour It's two years old. Initially it was disconnected from the city, now they've also built the connection. And the great thing is that in addition to the cycle path for adults, there is a whole system of infrastructures, ranging from paths for children to workshopsWe talked about it, then I went home and on my next visit I found everything already done.

School children have never seen the Giro d'Italia pass by…

The beauty of it is that they don't know who Pogacar and Gaviria are. And yet seeing two boys like them stand there and teach how to ride a bike it was beautiful. They became children again and understood that their purpose is not just to runIt's a shame we couldn't do it again at the last retreat due to Covid.

The projects were born in 2014, the team started in 2018.

And my role also started to change. Initially I was more involved in the territory, because there were sponsorships and projects that were expiring and needed to be completed. Then gradually I took everything into my own hands and in the last two years things have become very clearWe created a group with well-defined roles and the riders now also have their own references.

How can the purchase of Colnago be read in this context?

Colnago it is an excellenceErnesto had reached a point where he still wanted to guarantee the future and development of the company and the fact that the team was racing with his bikes had an impact. But I believe that the initial push was precisely the fact that we were talking about a prestigious niche company, as With that supplies us with helmets. Not a billion-dollar company, but capable of making excellent bicycles.

Meanwhile, the team grew.

We had laid the foundations for a technical evolution from the beginning, collaborating with Dutch universities on preparation. We have now introduced further collaborations to have more sophisticated data analyzers. And a lot of work also has repercussions on the image that the team is starting to haveIf before we were the ones looking for people, today we are receiving requests for collaboration.

And with the image came the results.

Fruit of labor, but arrived early. We expected to be protagonists at the Tour, not to win it so earlyBut when you have a rider with so much talent, the surprises are perhaps not even too unexpected. What is sad is that, due to the various accidents and retirements, the team's work was undermined, which was excellent. We noticed that. We are growing, we are on the right track.

Let's say that having your back covered financially is a great incentive to work well.

It's the advantage of having a project bigger than winning bike races, which is the starting point of the whole journey. All sponsors have long-term agreements, of at least 4 years, because The goal is to create a cycling movement in the Emirates, to encourage locals. Many cycle paths already exist, and a 68-kilometer one will be inaugurated soon. You can circle Abu Dhabi on a 90-kilometer loop, within a total of 1.234 kilometers of existing cycle paths.

So your role remains transversal?

Having started with that project as a consultant, I would say definitely yes.

Your team suffered its first… blow from Covid, ending up in quarantine just a year ago.

It's true, we were among the first and this allowed us to understand its extent, seeing the suffering in younger athletes. That's why we've implemented an internal sanitization system of everything, to combat the risk of contagion. And that's why we took advantage of the opportunity offered by the Government to vaccinate the entire team. Nothing will change regarding the precautions to be taken in racing, but it will make us feel more at ease..

We were talking about Pogacar.

Tadej is a talent, he won well. Of course, some opponents weren't there, but We will return to the Tour with great motivation and the awareness that we can do it again..

In the meantime you have strengthened yourselves.

We started from the assumption that we wouldn't necessarily have to take on who knows how many riders. The rule is to evaluate the type of person first and then the athlete. We took Trentino, Majka and Hirschi. But they also arrived two exceptional sports directors such as Baldato e do you drive, two men with experience and professionalismWe must give priority to the environment we create, because now we're talking about almost 100 people.

A small town! Could you have ever imagined such a development when you were at Polti with Stanga and Zenoni?

If I look back to when I moved to Cilo-Aufina in 1986, we had 6 spare bikes for the whole team, two cars and a van. From Stanga and Zenoni I learned that each person in the team must have his own specific weight. and that's what I then saw and re-proposed in my career.

What career path could you have expected?

I was a good rider, but not a great talent.I've always worked hard, but this was more my idea of ​​the future. I had the vision that one day I would have my own teamI watched to understand and interacted with sponsors. That was my goal. I started with Caldirola and then I always grewChina could have been a great leap, but the one who truly believed in the project died. Yes, this is the job I've always wanted to do.

Is there still room for the bike?

Always, little but often. At least 4-5 times a week. An hour and a half, no more.I work so hard, day and night, that if I take an hour off to go cycling, I'm not doing anyone any harm. I believe that sport is good for the body and the mindAnd if you think about it, that's why all this started seven years ago...