Among those who sat in the flagships of the Tour of the Aosta Valley there was also Ivan Basso. The two-time winner of the Giro d'Italia as is known is one of the managers of the Eolo-Kometa which also has an under-23 team, flying the Spanish flag, but decidedly Italian.
Ivan followed the race, and we asked him his opinion on the event and the participants. There were 28 teams at the start, only four of which were Italian. (Colpack-Ballan, Ctf, Lan Service and Iseo Rime Carnovali) A total of 138 athletes, but all of them of the highest caliber. While he signs autographs in the shadow of Gran Paradiso, we take the opportunity to chat with him.
Ivan, let's start with yours. How did it go?
We were aiming for Davide Piganzoli. After the good Giro d'Italia U23 and the podium in the Italian time trial championship, we had prepared well for this event, despite our maturity. Unfortunately he was ill the day before the race and was unable to perform as he wanted. This is an extremely demanding test. So without Piganzoli we focused on Alex Martin, A very good guy. He was our backup to Davide, he was the one who was supposed to support him, and when you lose your leader, you end up having to make do as best you can.
Martin did well, he finished sixth…
As our under-23 team, we're here to learn. It's a youth academy. It's like the youth team of a football team. We don't just look at the finishing line. We look at it in terms of the top division. In short, we don't have an U23 team that we need to get results, but if they do, we're obviously happy. For us it's important how they run The guys, how they're positioned in the group... They have to learn how to fan out, how to take the climbs in good position, how to have a good cadence, how to use the gears, how to get their water bottles from the car... All things that are then acquired when they move up to the top category. I see so many who don't know how to do all this.
And what can you tell us about Andrea Montòli?
He just finished school. Immediately after graduation, he went to Livigno. He is a great talent that we must have the patience to wait for. I'm confident he'll do well in the upcoming races. A challenging schedule awaits him between August and September, already looking ahead to next season. And there's still something you don't know.
What?
Next year, our under-23 team will have six Italians racing with us. We'll race every weekend in Spain (with the Spanish team, ed.) and Italy. We'll also have a shared calendar for the most important races. We would have 15-16 riders in total. Therefore, the Italian side will follow a fully Italian calendar.
Speaking of the race in general, what's your assessment of the route? Okay, the Valle d'Aosta is tough, but maybe the first stage was overdone. Terreblanche was monstrous, and there were a lot of walls before that, too...
The Giro della Val d'Aosta has always been like this. So no: for me that stage wasn't too hard. I don't think there's a limit too high for this category. It's too much to see youngsters warming up on rollers under the gazebo at 7 years old.Or the rookies and the students who train like the juniors and under-23s. That's not good. An under-23 means they're under 23, especially considering that a guy who's almost 23 won the Tour...
So it wasn't an exaggeration...
The judgment on hardness is subject to review. I think that tough races need to be done. And these guys are young, they're strong, they're recovering, they're capable of managing themselves, and they're having fun too. If you take a stroll around the paddock among the campers, there's not one lying on the ground that needs reviving. They're all happy and proud to have finished an important race. And besides, it's July, they've come from a lot of races, they've got a lot of kilometers in their legs. I repeat, what's done first is wrong, not that the stages here are incredibly tough.
Is there any boy who has impressed you?
Yes, obviously we have a special attention for our own, but the boy who won today (yesterday for those reading, ed.) Steinhauser He's very good. He's one of those who will most likely come with us next season. I'd already seen him at Tour of the AlpsI have very good scouts and we're monitoring the boys on a general level and not just in the competitions we take part in. And like us, many others work like this. Maybe even among our twenty-year-olds there's a pogacar.
What was your relationship with the Giro della Valle d'Aosta? And was there anyone you saw yourself in?
I've only done the Aosta Valley a couple of times because…” Ivan thinks for a moment. “I don't know why! I don't remember exactly. Time passes, I get wiser! Runners who are like you are the ones you're more likely to give advice to because you see yourself in them. This is a race that in some way highlighted my characteristics as a long-distance rider, as a rider who emerges over the distance. So I see myself in the riders who finished ahead. And that's why when you asked me if it was too tough, I said no!
You talked about projection, knowing how to use the gear shift, coming to get the water bottles... Would you like to see teams with one, two, three more men so they can work in the race like the pros?
There are two ways to look at this category: getting results or preparing the riders. The former may be more rewarding in the moment. But returning to the football example, it's clear that the club is happy if the youth team wins the championship, but they're happier bringing players into the first team, finding the Donnarumma or Locatelli of the moment. In my opinion, this is how this category should be interpreted, and this is how we work at Eolo-Kometa.
And what about the number of riders per team?
It's clear that to create a certain team effort, you need the right number of athletes, but here we also enter into the discussion of the organizers regarding permits and costs, because it's one thing to organize an event for 140 riders and another to do it for 180-190. Certainly, the closer this category, which is a school, comes in all respects to that of professionals, the better. So if you can start with one or two riders, it's a win-win.
