La testimony of Floreani about the foreign experience of the Team Tiepolo has given new impetus to discussions on youth activity. It's a sore point in Italian cycling today., certainly one of the factors underlying the difficult times they're experiencing. The Friulian team's experience is an example of how to manage, but other clubs, both for obvious geographical reasons and equally obvious differences in financial resources, have to deal differently, and this disparity ultimately weighs heavily.
After reading the article, he contacted us Emanuele Serrani, an important voice in youth cycling in the Marche region for many years in the management staff of the Sc Calzaturieri Montegranaro: «Now for work reasons I look after a youth club in my town, but I stayed on as a collaborator, I care too much about those kids.
«The experience of the Friulian team is interesting, but they are from Udine, They have a much greater chance of crossing the border and even engaging in cross-border activities. For us, this is practically impossible, and this weighs heavily.».
Let's start from your reality...
We have a club that at the beginning of the year had 14 players, now they are down to 9: two elite players and the others are all under 23. We mainly do regional activities, but we were able to take part in the trials ExtraGiro and some classics such as Montecassiano, Castelfidardo, Capodarco.
Why have they decreased in number?
It always happens like this in small and medium-sized companies: not everyone is ready to do first-level activities, but every race, even at regional level, sees national teams at the startIn the long run, the youngest, those who need time to mature, who perhaps even have the means to do well but need to be "cultivated" with time and care, stop.
One of the main problems, as even the Federation admits, is participation in regional competitions...
It's maybe the first aspect which to get your hands on. In Italy we also have the oddity of the presence of continental cars, which you find everywhere. They have absolutely nothing to do with the regionals, they should have the status of professionals and compete in their own events., without stealing space from the youngest, both as a society and in terms of actual age.
From your point of view, are there many or few competitions?
They are increasingly fewer, and so even the larger teams, which should compete in national or international events, are everywhere. For example, ours were in Canosa di Puglia this week, a race that in the past struggled to reach 70 riders. this year there was an invasion of riders from the North too. More than an interregional race...
Another issue addressed was the scarcity of stage races compared to foreign ones…
We've never been abroad, but reading this made me wonder what's causing this disparity. Is it just a budget issue, or is there more to it, like permits being difficult to obtain? I'll base my analysis on cyclocross (Serrani is among the organizers of the national race in Ancona, ed.): I see Belgian and Dutch races that almost always have an artificial bridge. I tried to ask for it to be included on the route, but you have to fill out a thousand requests and documents, not to mention the enormous costs. In the end, you give up.The basic problem, however, is the status of the races: if the only differences between a national and a regional are the prize money and the race fee, we won't get very far.
Ultimately, what would you need to “suffer less”?
First of all a higher budget, but This applies to everyone regardless. Also much more order in the regulations, with a local calendar that allows smaller clubs and riders who still have to grow to competeWe'll end up having about fifty races a year, which isn't a small number, but we only have a few truly local races, and they're incredibly important. It's not so much who wins that matters, it's about providing the right experience for all the kids, so they don't lose their passion, because that's what keeps the circus going; without it, everything collapses.
