Simone Consonni he is enjoying his last days of rest. The training camps start next week, we leave for Spain and the season will practically already have begun.The Olympian comes from a year spent entirely on the road and in his heart the distance from the track was felt, because passion is hard to keep dormant and every glance that escaped towards the events of the velodromes veiled his gaze with melancholy.
Now we start again and Simone is keen to reiterate that his was not a farewell to the track, but a conscious choice, matured and shared with the team and linked to the space of the pre-Olympic year: «The track is my true great love. I started as a junior and it was an escalation until I got to all the Olympic medals. This year was planned, in the sense that it was the year that Jonathan and I (Milan(Editor's note: we were making our Tour debut, and due to scheduling constraints, no Nations Cup would fit in with the road program. Not even the European Championships, and ultimately not even the World Championships, because the team had put me in the starting lineup for the Tour of Guangxi. So I had to put it aside a bit, but only competitively, because Montichiari remained my home.».
It must have been hard to see others compete and not be able to test yourself…
Well, the desire to be there is always great, especially for the World Cup. I would have liked to be there, for all that the track means to me. It was definitely Elia's last world championship... I kept myself free for the elimination day, I wanted to see it and, well, it was exciting. It was nice to see it from home, but I had a little regret for not being there. So me, Ganna and Lamon we organized a trip for a couple of days to Ghent, where Elia ended his career and so we were able to see him on that occasion.
How does it feel to no longer have him on the track as an athlete?
Our entire group has had a life with Viviani, many experiences. I think we all took him as a role model. He will certainly be greatly missed on the track, not having him by your side as an athlete will be something strange and new. But with his new role, I'm sure he'll always be able to give us the best advice, as he always has. I'm happy with his choice and confident that we'll keep him close to us in the coming years. He'll definitely be part of it. fundamental to all the steps we will take between now and the Los Angeles Olympics.
Did being Viviani's contemporary in the Olympic discipline, the omnium, take anything away from you in these years?
Leading question… I could say yes, but the truth is that I'm an athlete who doesn't consider himself a phenomenon. At 31 years old, seeing a bronze, a silver and an Olympic gold medal at home, having Viviani around me has given me more than it has taken away. Seeing what I've managed to achieve, especially at the Olympic level but also at the European and world levels, I think I've still carved out my own space, even in the presence of such a champion and specialist.
Now, however, at 31, you are at the height of maturity to face the Olympic four-year period, aiming for the Los Angeles event with great expectations…
I've always said, and I've been repeating it ever since I started this sport, that age shouldn't be a factor. In my opinion, at the end of every year you have to prove you're ready, that you're on point, that you're capable of competing with the best. So personally it doesn't matter, the important thing is to convince the manager and the whole entourage that you are ready for that competition, regardless of your palmares and experience.Los Angeles is definitely a big goal for me, but it's also a big goal for many of the national team's players, for many young athletes who are developing, and for the entire track world. The Olympics are the most important event that makes track what it is. I feel I have to prove to the city that I can still be a great asset and have a good chance of making the podium.
We've seen the quartet, almost entirely made up of young people, embark on new experiences. Looking from the outside, what's your assessment?
But not just from the outside, because we've always trained on the track, attended training camps, and practice sessions together. I'm happy because there are so many young guys who come to the track every week, who are motivated by the quartet's cause. When we started, we often struggled to find the four to compete with… Now seeing so many kids who feel the national team jersey is something important, it's something that fills me with pride.
Are you optimistic about the future?
In the last few years we got used to it well, in a discipline where the level among the quartets and among the national teams is so high and balanced that the slightest thing can make a difference. Just think of the Tokyo tournament, how we beat New Zealand in the semifinals by a hundredth of a second and then won the final against Denmark by a tenth of a second. Today, if you look at the times, if you look at the guys and how they get there, in my opinion there is a great movement and we must be satisfied with what we are sowingAnd we hope that in the coming years we will be able to raise as much as we have in previous years.
