They can't be compare Pogacar, Evenepoel, Ayuso and VingegaardBut behind them there are no Italians, and especially no young Italians coming from the juniors and under 23s. Nibali closed the Line of Business in fourth place at 38 years old. Colbrelli won the Roubaix to 31Where are our kids? Yesterday a rider told us that there's so much talk about it that in the end we don't understand anything anymore, and yet in recent days Ulissi and then Trentino they brought up some very concrete arguments. And we with these knocked on the door of Diego Bragato, who has recently concluded some tests on juniors with Salvoldi and is responsible for performance at Technical School, which recently took the place of the Study Center.
This piece will be a long read, but the reasoning is flawless. It can be the starting point for changeIf anyone, especially in the junior and U23 teams, cares about the health of our cycling.
Don't you get the feeling that the aim is to raise the performance level of the juniors too much, leaving them little margin for improvement when they move up a category?
As always, you can't tar everyone with the same brush, but there is certainly too much emphasis on the junior categoryEmphasis on volumes, on simulating what the professional does, instead of building long-term training. Unfortunately, our movement pushes for the pursuit of results as a junior, rather than building an athlete who will have results after 5-6 years.
Abroad they do more stage races and fewer one-day races…
We are the last of the top-level nations that still competes on Sundays. So at various levels, not only in the juniors but also very much in the under 23s, the scheme is always the sameRun on Sunday. Monday, recovery. Tuesday, some strength work. Wednesday, distance. Thursday, some easy work. Friday, speed work. Saturday, recovery. Sunday, race. And so it goes throughout the year, hoping for a condition that leads to winning as many races as possible. But this cycling no longer existsOther nations have significantly reduced the number of competitions during the year, at various levels: from juniors on up. And they teach athletes to build performance towards a goal.
What about us instead?
Our boys they grow like they used toThey find the condition with the races, so by continuing to run, They have results at youth level, but they don't learn to train. So they arrive in a professional world where, rightly, as Trentin describes, Now you can't use competitions to train anymore, because you have to get there already in good conditionAnd we are not capable, neither physically nor mentally. Physically, the trainers can help us, but mentally, it's another thing..
In what sense?
Our boys they are not ready to train to be ready for the competitions, because nobody teaches them howWe just teach them to run. To break away and not to pull and wait for the sprint. But cycling is no longer this.
Trentin also spoke about what he considered to be excessive workloads…
It is often like this, the problem is that even among the students they train almost like amateursThey do larger volumes of work than the juniors. Then, as juniors, they train like the under-23s or the elites. And when they are under 23 they no longer have any margins. Unfortunately, that's how it is. Quantity of work is preferred over qualityAnd multidisciplinarity, as Trentin rightly says and as the track demonstrates, is a way to preserve quality at the expense of quantity. Quantity can also be added later. On the other hand, if quality isn't preserved, you can't recover it again.
And what happens?
We have some athletes who become excellent team players, that is, people capable of enduring a long-term load for a long time, but not of imposing their own pace. Unfortunately they become, so to speak, soldiers. People who have big volume on the shoulders, but it doesn't make a difference.
Can anything be done regarding communication with companies?
In fact, these messages have been hammered home in training courses for several years, first at the Study Center and now at the Technical School. That is, on preserving talent, reducing volumes in general, understood as kilometers and hours as ends in themselves, focusing instead on qualityBut it seems that this message is not getting through, or rather, it is not getting through entirely. There are teams that have changed pace, it must be said. And if foreign teams consider our juniors attractive it is because in any case they see that in certain environments people are starting to work in the right way, so that has to be acknowledged.
How do you interpret the fact that some people go abroad?
It is strange that they come to get them as juniors, probably to… save them from our under 23 category, where instead some teams still work to win the Sunday race, instead of building an athlete ready to mature to become a valid professional.
Do you think the continental shift changes attitudes a bit, or are they called continental but do the same things as before?
I'm afraid they'll keep doing the same things. Unless I can... to bring back to Italy a reference team that dictates the rules, because these athletes could be attractive to them. Otherwise, we risk simply changing the label, but working as before. It's no coincidence that I'm taught this by those with a better historical memory than I do: athletes like Nibali, Viviani himself, Caruso, Guarnieri, Bettiol, Cimolai, and Bennati, who is now a national team coach. They are all kids who came out of the last Italian school, which was Liquigas. Then we had very little. There's Ganna, but he's a phenomenon apart with completely different characteristics. The last athletes of a certain level, especially for stage races, were out of a team that gave him the time, as Ulissi rightly said, to grow as a captain, not to grow as a gregariousMoscon and company went to teams where they get paid a lot, where you have to do what the team tells you. That's how they grow to help others. So they develop the skills and mentality of a follower and not a captain who will have to emerge.
If you're strong, do you still not stand out? Or is the problem mental?
In my opinion the problem is not so much physical, because we have the athletesIt's really mental. Growing up with the mentality of building yourself, of being responsible for your own performance. based on a goal and not on an average value that guarantees you will be a good athlete all year roundBuild a goal and achieve it. Like Van Aert. It's true that he's a physical phenomenon, but also mentally he's someone who knows how to aim for a goal., to be ready for whatever race he decides. It's not that easy, Van der Poel already suffers a little more. Van Aert, on the other hand, is a machine, truly a machine. And we must teach our kids to be responsible for their performance, to listen to themselves and to build it according to an objective.. Not simply to win as many races as possible during the year.
Many have come and gone, won, and stopped early. Look at the 1990 riders...
There are different situations, because I see some boys who, as under 23s, are followed in every way, even too much and more than the professionalsThey go fast, then they pass and they no longer have anyone who takes them to train every day and tells them to wake up, to watch what they eat. As pros, they must be responsible for themselves. They just can't do it because no one has ever taught them how.. And so for a year or two they live off the proceeds and then disappear. What you've done for a while stays with you, but if you don't continue practicing it, it disappears. and they completely change the type of athlete.
You talked about different situations…
Yes, there are also those who work too hard as under 23s, do huge volumes and win because they train much more than the othersThen when professionals come along and find those who train like them, they flatten out.
In the tests you conduct, is it possible to evaluate the type of activity being proposed to them?
When we test juniors, we see what interesting athletes there are. But looking at them year by year, monitoring them as first- and second-year juniors and then as under-23s, we see that often the strength values, those that make the difference in modern cycling, are flattenedI say often and not always, because some work well. The others, boys and girls, go to do only volumes, only kilometers and hours.
And what happens?
They don't do quality work anymore and so you can see that they become less strongThey actually lower their strength. Maybe they can run 3-5 hours. They win junior races because they're used to longer distances, but then when they pass and it's time to make the difference on a tear or on a series of walls, they don't have any moreThey go from the 1.600 watts they did in sprints as juniors to the 1.300 they do as under 23s, which is therefore the difference between winning a sprint and pulling it off.
How does it come out?
We need to go back to make the kids responsible for their performance, also connecting to their sensationsIt's fundamental. The power meter helps us trainers to have an extra eye, but they They have to understand when they are well, when they are ill, what are the things that bring them into conditionWhat are the strategies for maintaining condition and understanding that during the year there are peak periods, periods of work, and periods of unloading? We need to teach them this, otherwise they will spend entire seasons trying to win as many victories as possible.And they think the more they win, the more they can advance to the Under 18s. Or the national team will call them up for the World Cup because they've won 20 races.
And how are you doing at the World Cup?
When someone wins 20 races in a year, they'll never be at 110 percent in the world championship. Go and fight with Nations that take a group of athletes and prepare them for the World Championships and therefore on that day they will go strong, because they worked towards the objective. We don't have that mentality, but we work towards Sunday. To win as many races as possible...
During Fusi's time, this working group, which also limited club activity, existed: could this be an aspect that needs to be reevaluated?
Could be a good way to protect them and that's what we've done in recent years with the under and elite track group and a little bit with the juniors too. The fact of starting to give the mentality of working in function of something, therefore with some continuous recalls during the week and with stage races placed in the right places that are needed for certain aspectsThis is a job we've done with that group. However, with the cycling reality we have at the national level, It's not easy because the interests of the teams are important. But I also think that by now it is becoming a necessity and that we can no longer hideWe absolutely must take control of this situation.
How does Bragato get out of this?
It would be important in my opinion if there was A link between teams. From juniors to under-18s, all the way up to the pro teams.A serious connection would be needed, with a manager who follows the athletes' progress and knows when a boy is ready to move on. In this way, The goal of the juniors will not be to win many races, but to be ready for the pro team. The boy is protected and no longer needs to win 20 a season to be sure of going through, but can take time to grow, to make mistakes and to try to work towards what he will later become as an athleteWhether this is a path created by a national team or by youth teams in conjunction with the teams, as long as it is a solid and continuous connection and not for seasonal gain, it could be the turning point.
This could also be the key to keeping our people in Italy…
The fact that others come to get the Italian riders is because they are not stupid. Ours are strong, everyone knows they are strongBut if they take them as juniors it's to protect them as soon as possible. Because obviously We're doing something wrong. And they've noticed..
