The Track World Championships in Glasgow still seem far away, but considering what's at stake, Marco Villa It's certainly not sitting idly by. The process of rapprochement began some time ago, the stages of the Nations Cup they have been stingy with satisfactions, the Olympic qualification will not be in danger, but the Italian coach is already thinking about how to get there, Paris 2024.
Add to all this Injuries have never been so concentrated in the Italian national team, especially the women's team.Precisely for this reason Villa has to deal with days that are never easy.
«There are those who are recovering, those who have started running again, those who are still in “dry dock”. We have to deal with a thousand situations, there's a month and a half left and we have to organize ourselves».
Balsamo's injury was the final blow...
It's not just his injury, but also that of the Guazzini, half of the world champion quartet is fully recovering. Luckily for the latter the news is comforting, she has resumed and will probably do the Tour, but it will certainly be close to the World Championships and there will be little time to refine the synchronisations, this is what worries me most.
And what about the Balsamo?
Elisa hasn't started rolling yet. I was at her place – Villa tells – and I still felt she was positive and energized. I didn't ask her how long it would take for her to recover; she should stay calm and follow the normal steps.I've known her since last year, and I know that when she's able to return, she quickly regains her fitness. In fact, she's always one of the most ready players at the start of the season. That's why, regardless of what she's been able to do, she's someone who must always be part of the group.
The problem, on the other hand, is not just yours, for example Great Britain is dealing with Hayter's broken collarbone…
We know it's part of the game. I've always said that having a large group forces certain decisions, but in situations like this, it's also an advantage; it allows you to find a solution anyway.
This year's World Championship, however, is difficult to manage, as it involves all disciplines.
This is a relative problem, I would like to point out that in such a situation we won an Olympic gold medal and set a world record.in the sense that Ganna just 5 days earlier he had done the time trial. However, we must give each test its due weight – continues Villa – in England they certainly didn't complain because pidcock Instead of competing in the road Olympics, he won the MTB Olympics. A gold medal is a gold medal... I've never forced anyone; I take whoever wants to.
Have you heard rumors of the Musketeers of the Quartet resigning?
I remember well what happened immediately after Tokyo: the boys made a pact among themselves and promised to do everything to get to Paris and confirm their positionGanna has clearly said that he wants to focus on the Glasgow time trial and on the track and that's fine by me. However, I have to work. in agreement with the programs that the boys have drawn up with their respective team managersI've never had a say in this and I never will. I adapt. Besides, when the guys win on the road, I'm the first to be proud, you see what Milan he did at the Giro d'Italia.
The program is complicated, however…
We need to make some distinctions here. The problem for Pippo in combining road and track is that he has no recovery time to do not so much the quartet, but the individual test on the track, but can give up the latter which is not an Olympic specialty. Looking at the program I am convinced that the greatest difficulty is instead combining the road race on Sunday with the time trial on the following Friday.
Explain yourself better…
On Sunday the riders tackle 270 kilometers, which means that in the next two days you can do practically nothing. But you arrive too far behind in the race against time without having been able to do the necessary specific work in the days immediately precedingYou don't have the time. The problem isn't the track-road match, but the road-road match...
It will be necessary to make a joint plan with Bennati…
Not only with him, also with Velo, Amadori, Sangalli… We have always worked in mutual agreement, then there is a team manager like amadio who holds the reins. This actually helps a lot in managing the event.
Do you think that compared to the quartet, the other specialties will have less weight this year, considering the needs of Olympic qualification?
No, but it's clear that each federation has to make do with what it has. Let me explain: we have a quartet to qualify for, and we start from there. A nation like Portugal, for example, has very strong players for Madison and Omnium, and therefore favors those. But we have known this for a long time, we have strong people who work both for the quartet and for other specialties, Perhaps we'll also have great specialists from other disciplines who, precisely because of Olympic qualification requirements, will be able to sit out or return through the reserve quartet. We've been familiar with the work rules since the post-Tokyo Games, and we've adapted to them.
