A photo on Facebook, a memory that resurfaces, yesterday's mess: hear Coppolillo It will certainly be a beautiful journey into memory and from memory to the future. Because the future is built on correct processing of the pastAnd anyone who thinks or wants to cancel it should at least know about it first.
June 11, 1994
The photo of the blond boy in the green jersey comes from the finish line of Sestriere to Tour of Italy Part 1994It was June 11th. The day before the race had applauded Pantani's final attack on the Colle dell'Agnello, thwarted by Buenahora's lack of cooperation on the Lautaret stage that announced Les Deux Alpes. The Giro d'Italia would have ended with the Sestriere stage that announced the sprint to Milan. Berzin held on in the pink jersey, conquered on the fourth day and never given up.
Snow in Sestriere
«It was the classic ready-go day – Coppolillo recalls – with Lautaret, Monginevro and Sestriere twice. It was snowing. I went on the run and hoped that they would stop us at the first finish line, but no.I want to say that for me it was the forty-first stage, because I had also done the Vuelta which finished seven days before the Giro. And I had always done it on the attack, because I was and remain a cycling worker. Well, I don't remember how it happened. But on the Lautaret I saw the breakaway starting and I threw myself into it."
Wrong management
Trade union struggles, whatever the context we want to talk about, have been and are still being fought for improve working conditionsCycling has also taken this path. It has reduced mileage compared to the black-and-white years. It has humanized race schedules. It has mandated helmet use. It has embraced health protection, fighting doping and extreme weather conditions. It has endorsed the use of buses to avoid leaving riders in the cold of start and finish lines. Little is still being done for road safety for those who use their bikes every day. But he did not turn his back on his history, who sees it sport of hard work and sacrificeThe only one capable of looking football in the eye and making its actors and fans say that "we don't stop because it's raining, we're not ladies!" What happened yesterday it could have had a shared foundation, but it was done in an incorrect way, with the attitude of students who talk to each other in a secret chat so as not to be heard by the professors. And the professors are their sports directors and team managers.
Michele is also the sporting director of an U23 team, called #In Emilia-Romagna.
History teaches
«There are stages in which the conditions are adverse – says Coppolillo – history teaches us. The method was wrong, rather, when faced with a serious problem, we should have organized ourselves first., not half an hour after departure. And then if you leave, you arrive. You don't stop after ten kilometers. Everyone knows and no one knows. When these things happen, all the weaknesses of this world come out.I teach my kids that cycling also means sacrifice, cold, and rain. And I also think that safety comes first. I don't like to talk about how it was in my day. The Giro in October is perhaps a stretch, but this is what we have. Two months ago, we didn't even know if we'd start again. The 250 kilometre stage between the big stages has always been thereWhat needs to be taught in youth categories is the true essence of cycling. If a father is too indulgent, the child does not grow up well.».
Rosa Berzin
Pascal Richard won in Sestriere, who must have had some affinity with those places, given that the following year in Chianale he would win the stage stopped early due to avalanches on the Colle dell'Agnello. Ruè came second, while Coppolillo placed third, 1'31" behind the Swiss on that final climb. Pantani and the other riders in the general classification finished 4'36" behind, confirming the Russian Berzin's team.
The wind in your face
«Athletes – Coppolillo continues – should be given experience first-hand what it means to manage a team, maybe in winter. Stand there and show them what's at stake. As a rider, I didn't realize it. and Cunego also admitted live yesterday that he discovered a side of cycling that he didn't know. I also know that I have I've done worse stages than that day in SestriereThe one in Corvara at the 1992 Giro. Certain days at the Vuelta, which was run in April, in the Sierra de Madrid, always in the snow. The Belgian races, where you could see all four seasons in a single day. I've read some comments about how it's always easy to comment from the couch., but this is the bicycle. And I'm not speaking like this because I've forgotten, but because I know it well.I also took part in my strikes, but yesterday we could have raced. We need to train the boys well, not just to be racing machines. I can see that they're going very fast now, but they have these shortcomings and at times they're a bit soft. The wind in your face is different than the wind on a roller., but I realize that not everyone thinks that way."
