The day after Alessio Mattiussi, sport director and trainer of the Bahrain Victorious Development Team, He is already working towards the Italian under-23 time trial and road championships. The victory of the Giro Next Gen it's fresh and still hanging in the memory but ambition does not allow you to stop at any goal.
«I was thinking about it yesterday (Sunday, ed.) while we were travelling home from Pinerolo – says Mattiussi – what it's like to continuously set goalsWe just reached a huge milestone and it's time to think about the next ones. There is time to enjoy every achievement, also because the phone doesn't stop ringing and that's how you begin to realize the importance of the feat you've accomplished."
A year and a half later
Mattiussi tells us that even in the most hectic moments of the season he doesn't lack sleep; as soon as he hits the bed he's asleep, even though on Sunday, before the decisive stage, he was already awake at five in the morning.
“When you’re so close to the goal,” he says, “you get the urge to go and get it. Sunday at Pinerolo it was an incredible day. Think that during the pre-stage meeting on the bus it was Omrzel himself who said that we would win. I was the one who had to find my best sphinx expression (laughs, ed.)».
Behind the awards stage, Roberto Bressan told us that he's been working with Omrzel since he was a second-year junior…
True. It was November 2023 when we started, obviously in agreement with the team Adria Mobil (his junior team, ed.) We took care of the whole season by setting goals both with the team and with the Slovenian national team. The goal was to build a work program which would allow Omrzel to arrive prepared for the under 23 category.
How was the first approach?
Athletically, I immediately understood that I had in front of me a rider with strong endurance skills. As the days and kilometers pass, it gives its best.. Confirmation also came from Giro Next Gen, in the last two stages he was the best.
Humanly speaking, what kind of boy is he?
Intelligent and ambitious. Every time he wears a number on his back, he wants to try to win. I have to say that as soon as we met he made a great impression on me., he also trusted me immediately and this allowed us to build a lot.
Also because there was no shortage of results.
When he won the Paris-Roubaix Juniors we had confirmation that the method adopted was working. Omrzel is a stage racer, that victory on the cobbles was unexpected but it showed his great qualities.
Is he a rider with great tactical intelligence?
Absolutely. On the Gavi stage, we were ready to seize the right opportunities after the Penice Pass. We knew that the top-seeded men could move and so it was.Omrzel demonstrated great race vision, as he did in the second stage of the Tour of Slovenia. It's difficult to catch him unprepared from a tactical standpoint.
Your goals last year were halted by the bad crash at Lunigiana. How difficult was it to get back on track?
We had marked it in red Tour of Lunigiana It was the World Championships and we were ready. That bad fall stopped everything, and not just from an athletic point of view. Omrzel remained in hospital for a month under observation, if it had been up to him he would have gotten back on the bike after a week or two. Instead, we spoke to the medical staff and explained to them how important it was to restart calmly.The season was over and we needed to recover well.
Once you got back on the bike, what sensations did you have?
He calmly resumed November with the aim of being ready for June. During the December retreat I was happy to see him pedaling again and that he was with us, having fun as a group.Then, when we started preparing for the season in January, I saw all his qualities again.
You would have expected to win the Giro Next Gen?
If they had asked me in January I would have replied that it would be more of a dream than a goalI would have said he would have made the top 5. Sunday's victory is even more beautiful precisely because it comes after a long journey together.
