Casa Eolo, a light drizzle as the team prepares for their next trip. We've been here before. before its inaugurationIn the meeting room that bears the name of Cuvignone, at the same table we find Luca Spada e Iván Basso, the main sponsor and team manager of Eolo-KometaTime for projects rather than budgets, but understanding the reasoning behind the team It also allows you to read the sports choices.
Spada threw himself into cycling with the intensity of a tornado, supporting the company owned by Basso and the Contador brothersAnd when you ask him how the toy is going, the change of irony in his gaze makes it clear that the commitment is truly maximum and the stakes are very high.
"It's a pretty expensive toy," he laughs, "but I'm very happy. The team was founded in November 2020, when the transfer window was already closed, so Ivan worked wonders by finding riders still on the market and betting on guys like Fortunato and Albanese, who turned out to be two excellent talents. But the real core is the team of men he built around the riders and whose true importance I understood.Eight to ten people who are there no matter what happens and are able to handle it. Runners come and go, the core remains and grows stronger.I put my outside eye into it, which is always useful. Don't you also find yourself drowning in the daily grind, and then someone comes along and points out something you hadn't even noticed, something that can make your life easier?
Have you figured out how cycling benefits your company?
After a year, the brand visibility results are very interestingWe conducted an in-depth study using specific keywords to determine how people perceive the brand and in what context. For example, for the past three years, Eolo has been talked about in relation to internet connections. Since last year, the second reason why people are talking about it is cycling itself.If we had continued with traditional communication, we would always have remained tied to the same audience. Entering the sport has allowed us to broaden the pool.
Since last July, 75 percent of the capital has been transferred to a Swiss fund. Will things change for the team?
Not even a little bit, il Background he is very convinced about the sponsorship, so much so that the survey we just talked about was commissioned by them. I'm passionate about it and can also make certain types of assessments, they wanted to see the numbers and the numbers convinced themIt's a difficult year for telecommunications. Energy costs have exploded. Imagine that every repeater... Aeolus has his contract with Enel and electricity spending increased by 6 million eurosThe routers themselves are more expensive due to the lack of raw materials, and at the same time, the cost of connectivity in Italy is among the lowest in Europe: €20 per month and the impossibility of increasing it. Consumption increased during the lockdown. There is constant tension among operators, but no one wants to be the first to increase tariffs..
How does cycling fit in?
You have to believe in it, grow, and have a team that works and conveys positive values. If you limit yourself to the investment threshold, you remain confused among the background noiseIf you stand out, people notice you. By sponsoring RCS races and involving partners in other activities with the team, we achieved this visibility. At the Giro we will be in the caravan with a super cool vehicle and we will have stands in all the stagesLike the logo on the jersey. If it's unique and large, everyone notices it. But who sees the many little logos jumbled together in the graphics of the other teams?
Do you still enjoy being among the riders?
As soon as I can, I run away and go to them. I will be very present at the Giro, with a preference for the mountain stages, which I like the most.I can't find the same enthusiasm in the sprints. This year many riders have contacted us, but we continued to focus on young people for whom Ivan is a sort of psychologistInvesting in them certainly helps keep costs down, but hopefully they'll grow. To keep the good ones we had to spend 800 thousand euros more in salaries. I am very happy for example with Diego Rose.
Didn't you know him?
No. And when he got on the bus after those 5 minutes of glory in the Carpegna stage of the Tirreno, he was really happy. I like to wait for them at the arrivals, you see their truest essenceNow those attacks need to become more frequent…
Rosa has integrated very well into the team and is rediscovering his dormant motivation. Gavazzi is now the mother hen of the group: he wanted to quit, but he found new stimuli
Rosa has integrated very well into the team and is rediscovering his dormant motivation. Gavazzi is now the mother hen of the group: he wanted to quit, but he found new stimuli
No tests at the Giro
Basso looks up. Spada's assist is the best opportunity to get into the conversation and explain the philosophy of working with riders: the new ones and the more experienced ones.
«We took riders – he says – who had they had fallen out of love with cycling and had become unaccustomed to winning. Gavazzi He himself wanted to quit, but he's still there, fighting. Many times, you're in a group and you just go with the flow. You have to wake them up, encourage them, starting from partial goals. Carpegna's day offers a clear picture. There was Rosa in front who anticipated and Fortunato behind, which we have already talked about, who tried to run with the big names and didn't take off for fear that they would then drop him. Okay for once, next time we'll tell him to take the shot and he'll have to do it.
«There are three ways to get results. Running to get seen, fleeing from afar. Anticipate in the finals, trying to win. Running with the best, which is a guarantee of a beating in the teeth. Now we'll go to high altitude for 23 days, then there will be two stage races to do some testing, and then we'll bring out the eight for the Giro. There will be no more time for testing there, we will race as the team says.. In this Zanatta has total control, He's disarming. I had doubts about two riders and how they rode, but he taught me patience. Alberto (Contador, ed.) is worse than me. He just can't conceive of running in the second group. (laughs, ed.)».
Italian sponsors wanted
Spada nods and somehow is pleased with this desire to emerge, which becomes the business card of an attractive team who also made image his strong point.
«I'm happy – he says – that two sponsors have arrived like Burger King e VisitMalta, which will allow us to go to the Giro with our food truck, convinced as we are that Proper nutrition is as important as trainingThe problem is that it's really difficult to find Italian sponsors. We've mobilized top professionals and put into play important personal knowledgeBut on the one hand, there's still a fear of doping, even if you explain the whole testing system to them. On the other, they're all after football..."
The same words I heard Cassani say.
I talked about it a lot with him and I share his visionWe need to broaden the base of investing companies. If it's always the same 50, it's unlikely we'll go beyond the current three professionals.If there were 500, then everything would be different.
It is not by chance, but it goes back to Basso's precise will that the brands on the blue shirt of the Varese team are of companies previously outside of cyclingProjects and discussions are swirling around the table. We could go on forever, but work is calling. It's still raining outside. Basso's 2020 Giro Senza Fine Trophy is currently on its way to Hungary for a home display Kometa On the eve of the Giro d'Italia's start. In the office next door, travel plans are being made. A few greetings, and then the journey to Milan begins. Spada's Tesla slips silently into the light March drizzle and swoops away.
