Paolo Rosola is at Mugello with his son Patrick and the camper for the City of Florence cyclocross trophy. The technician of General Store he struggles to stay still and after all this is the life he has always ledFirst as a rider, then as Paola Pezzo's teammate when she was still racing, then as sport director in the professional and then in continental, on the motorbike at the Giro d'Italia, then as father of two riders. What has recently been added to his agenda is a course for third level sports directors, organised in collaboration with the FederationAnd being able to see the structure of the courses up close stimulated the curiosity of the Brescian towards the new concept of the "technical coach", as the old sports director of cycling will be called from now on (Opening image: photor.it of the technical meeting before the Edil Group Costruzioni Trophy).
Holy Family High School
It all started from his collaboration with the "Sacra Famiglia" Scientific Sports High School of Castelletto di Brenzone sul Garda, in the province of Verona. He had already told us about it in 2022, when his main concern was the (vain) search for a sponsor to prevent the Gazprom group from dispersing.
«It is a scientific sports high school – repeats Rosola – in which around 250 kids get to take the T1 (first level as sports directors, ed.) and in the fifth year they graduate with the Cycling Touring Guide diplomaThey basically do the entire process of about 60 hours and I have been collaborating with them since Daniela Isetti was at the Federation Study Center. The school has a downhill track and a pump track. and when the new leaders of the Technical School they came to see her, she was born the proposal to organize a course for the third level and the school joined. In addition the institute has a guesthouse run by the nuns, which allows students to stay overnight on the weekends when the course takes place."
And was that how you realized how much the third level has changed compared to previous years?
Exactly. Compared to a time more elements of training, nutrition and psychology have been includedEven the term "sporting director," as it was in the old days, will slowly disappear. Today that figure will be called technical coachHe's the one who manages the staff, because today, even in continental competitions, we have everything: the nutritionist, the trainer, the doctor, the masseur, the mechanic. Once the sporting director, who we would previously have called the team manager, entrusts us with all these people, the technical coach has to manage them. In the General Store I am a technical coach and from now on it will be indicated on the card, with the qualification TA3.
As a coach, do you need to know about preparation, nutrition, and psychology because you'll be dealing with a coach, a nutritionist, and a psychologist?
Exact. I talk to my trainer, my nutritionist and the doctor, then I can make the running tacticsThat is always managed by the coach, like in football. And the Federation has started to insert this figure, towards which everyone will have to striveBecause it's clear that these courses also serve to make a selection.
Do you think your colleagues will have a hard time embracing this change?
At the continental level and even in the elite/U23 teams, we are far away, because we come from the culture of the older generations, which instead must change. If the WorldTour is the A series and the professional teams are the B series, Continentals are the third division of cycling. And even in the third division, there are mechanisms identical to those in the first division. If you talk to the professionals, they are not the directors who manage the training sessions. So the courses try to qualify this figure of the technical coach, but it's quite clear that we'll have to wait a little longer for everyone to be ready. Everyone will have to understand, or young people will have to arrive, like D'Aiuto, Pozza and Palomba who were with us last year and enrolled in the courseAnyone who doesn't agree can go back to being a sports director like before, but in the youth and at most the juniors.
The problem with equating Serie C with Serie A is that in continental competitions, you're not professionals and you're not part of the Cycling League. It seems there are meetings underway to facilitate this transition, but for now, you're amateurs...
Very true and I don't even know if the Federation and the professional teams themselves would be happy to see the continental teams in the League, they might see a contradiction in it.
How long is the course?
It started last weekend and lasts for three weekends. Then there's the internship, which must be done in a continental team, and the final exam. What can I say? I arrived in the continentals three years ago, but I see that there are still some old-fashioned sports directors They have to manage young people, who often know more than they do. You have to be up to speed, or have people on the team who are capable of the job. If you talk to me about nutrition, what do you expect me to know? But I have a nutritionist, I saw how he works, I gave him advice so that he can create a good relationship with young people and now I let him work.For example, during training camp, when I saw the guys being sneaky, I'd point it out to them. Because the riders are young and need to learn not to overdo it.
This is also part of their training.
You have to be careful about these things, keep up with them, because they are not professionals yetBut it's a type of education that should be taught by talking and not by shouting like Locatelli and others from previous generations did. We need to explain to them why they do the things they do. Some people tell you they prefer to leave with a full stomach, and you have to explain why that's wrong. I might give them a simple explanation: if you leave with a full stomach, they'll drop you right away. However, the nutritionist can frame it well, so that when he becomes a professional he will not make elementary mistakes.If someone like me hadn't believed in young people, we'd be stuck in the cycling of the 1990s. Instead, it's important to give young trainers space and ensure they succeed in their work.
