Stefano Moro among the sprinters is such a fresh novelty that even he sometimes looks around and wonders where his former classmates areThose of the endurance group, of which he was part until the World Championships, four weeks ago. Stefano is 25 years old and in 2019 he also took home some nice road races, such as the Lampre Trophy, Sant'Urbano and the Termen Circuit, then the track prevailed.
When Ivan Quaranta he said he was looking for sprinters everywhere, ringing the doorbells and recruiting them in the gyms, he omitted to say (perhaps it was superfluous) that he first looked at the house. And so he realized that the rider of the Blue Flames, in force as a pursuer to the Villa group and on the road to the Arvedi Cycling, as a student and junior he had gained experience in speed disciplines, winning Italian titles in the kilometre and Olympic sprintHe didn't need anything else.
«He proposed it to me at the World Championship – he says, somewhere between amazed and amused (in the opening photo, Moro is trying to start with Quaranta) – I was there as a reserve. He offered me to take a new path: becoming a sprinterI immediately spoke to Villa and Masotti (Fiamme Azzurre coach, ed.). I talked to them and listened to their advice., then I postponed it for two weeks. In the meantime, once the season was over, I went on vacation and kept thinking about it.When I came back, I spoke to Villa and Masotti again and we made the decision to give it a try."
No regrets
It's well known that the chasing group is starting to have problems with abundance. Therefore, Villa's reasoning was probably to let go of one of his reserves (at the European Championships in Plovdiv, Moro was part of the silver quartet, ed.) to give Quaranta an element of experience in view of the Olympic qualifiers for team speed.
«My doubts – he explains – were due to having followed a path towards endurance disciplines since I was a junior. Thanks to endurance, I managed to join the Fiamme Azzurre. Even though I was in the shadow of great champions, I was a little hesitant to take a new path, because it meant completely change your life at 25But then I started to think that, no matter what happens, I don't want to find myself when I'm much older, saying: "Wow, imagine if I had tried..." In short, It could go well or badly, but I didn't want to have any doubts. We'll just give it a try. And I say thank you to Blue Flames and to Arvedi Cycling for standing by me even when faced with this choice."
Tricolor keirin
It's not a leap in the dark, but Moro also has a lot of ground to make upHaving been a sprinter seven years ago doesn't mean the transition will be easy. He could have stayed in the endurance group, won his Italian championships, and perhaps remained in the shadows at the major events. so instead the Bergamo player is playing for a place at the Olympicsi. This is the discovery phase, which is a little intriguing and a little nervous.
"My first Italian title," he recalls, "was won as a student in the sprint. This year, again at the Italian Championships, Forty, so as a joke, he suggested I run the Keirin. I didn't want to, but in the end I went and won.. And that's where the idea came from. So I left the chasing group, but no one made any jokes. So far I've only met Lamon, we joke about it and I tell him that now I'm going to be big..."
Strength work
We observed him for a long time in the gym, while he did exercises with the barbell on his shoulders, controlling the movements of his knee e building a force which otherwise would not be necessary. Bragato, observing it with us, pointed out that Moro will have to above all give more substance to the upper body, while his speed will come out almost by itself.
«Usually I went to the gym once a week – Moro smiles – but since I arrived at the retreat I started the first week with three sessions, while We have four planned for this one. It's a completely different way of training; I have to learn from them, who are much younger. As for goals, I'm starting to train now and see how it goes; we'll see later. I just aim to improve and become competitive, to participate in keirin, speed and so on…».
