Visconti, cycling, and the Italian flag: a love story

There are few riders nowadays who get on their bikes every day with almost the same emotion as the firstThere are few riders who don't stop fighting after so many adversities, so many defeats, so many sacrifices. There are very few riders who, after more than thirty years of practicing this sport, still have the strength, the desire and the passion that drive them to redeem themselvesIn fact, there is only one Giovanni Visconti in the world… 

«I want to get involved and that's what I'm doing!», he states decisively. «I'm really sweating to get back on par with the others. After last season, which didn't go as I'd hoped, I'm starting from scratch, but I'm working hard and getting some decent results, and I want to be confident. It's going to be really tough! A win? I'm almost 39 years old, I don't feel like saying I'm convinced I can win, I've always been used to keeping my feet on the ground... First of all I want to do well, then there's time to think about a victory and it's not essential."

Another Palermitan

It's impossible not to have faith in a teammate like Giovanni: ready to lend support, a good example, and always eager to help young people develop to the fullest. A perfect team player, who tries to create the right atmosphere in every possible way. 

"Last year, I don't feel like I was truly useful to my team," he says, "or even to Fiorelli. I was never able to lend him a hand, and I feel sorry for him, especially for him. I want to give a real contribution to my team, not as a "figure" because the team loves me and wanted to keep meI want to be useful for my own results and, above all, for my teammates. I can and want to do a lot for Fiorelli first and foremost. I'm happy that after me there is another Palermo native in high-level cycling».

The tricolour jersey

This will be, perhaps, the last season of an immense career that has seen the growth and maturation of a rider who, starting from Sicily, slowly climbed Italy wearing different jerseys, but the most important one will always remain…

«The tricolour jersey! The first one – he recalls – was the one that started my career: the arrival in Genoa, the people's scream, my father, my wife who at the time wasn't yetI have won even more beautiful ones, but this one, for the whole atmosphere that was there, for the fact that I felt as if it was predestined to be mine, is the one I will probably always remember».

For his fans

The passion and love you have for your work can be seen precisely when, when you get to the end, you don't want to give up everything right awayAnd knowing what might happen, we try to look at everything with a positive perspective. 

«99 percent of the time it will be the last year – he explains – but maybe it will go well, that the team will want me, that I'll enjoy myself so much that I'll consider continuing. I think it'll be difficult, though! At the moment I'm more tired in the head than in the legs, cycling has changedI'll think about it when I realize it's all over. Right now I'm training, having a winter like any other. I want to run, to be alive in the race, and not just run to make up the numbers. I don't necessarily aim for a victory, but I want to compete for it.I want to make my fans happy, and there are many of them. If that doesn't happen, I might not even finish the year, but I don't even want to think about that possibility." 

Humanity lost

Cycling has changed. It's more technical, full of numbers, and lacking passion. The joy, happiness and true love for this sport has been lost.Most sports directors think of the rider as a robot and not a human being. 

"What don't I like about this cycling? Cycling (he laughs a little bitterly, ed.)! It can be said that I have seen the evolution of three generations of this sport and this one is clearly different from the first one., where it was more crude, more "ignorant," with fewer numbers. Kids now grow up with this idea, they don't know what they're missing, they don't know what it means to have fun doing this job. And he probably doesn't even care about going beyond ten years of career, he's not interested in making a living from cycling as long as his body can handle itOf course, cycling today is much better in many other respects, but humanity has really lost its way."

The mental coach

Cycling is a mental sport. You have to believe in it, you have to be calm, you can't let yourself be overwhelmed by all the negative things around you. 

"This year I got myself a mental coach - Says confirming the words of Paolo Alberati – and a trainer I had abandoned a couple of years ago. In this cycling alone you can't go anywhere, you need a figure for every aspectIn years gone by, people lived more peacefully. The role of a mental coach is essential now."

Cycling with Katy

To start over, sometimes, in addition to various precautions, something more is needed, something that everyone seeks in life and that is fundamental for everyone: love. And it is thanks to his wife that Giovanni has started training again to find himself and get back into shape.... 

«She was a cyclist before – she smiles – when I started training again a few months ago I shared several bike rides with herIt was really nice, with the only problem being that she's really strong and extremely competitive (smiles, ed.)".

Visconti, after his retirement in Sicily, He will leave for Argentina at the end of January to get back into the swing of things and be ready to compete in Italy in competitions like the Laigueglia.The race dedicated to Alfredo Martini is the one the Sicilian is aiming for and which he is particularly fond of from an emotional point of view. The last (perhaps) season of the standard-bearer of the Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè it's about to start…