Marco's Villa It's an expectation filled with thoughts, calculations, and reasoning about how to approach a season, the 2023 track season, which promises to be very difficult to manage. The positioning of the Europeans in mid-February, in the middle of winter and when the road season (although already started between South America and Australia) is still under construction, makes everything more difficult.We are in the pre-Olympic year, we need to look at the ranking and build the qualification for Paris 2024And while we're talking about World Cup finalists and winners, the quartets can't afford any missteps.
Holidays in progress
Almost all the protagonists of the Italian track are still on vacation, even those who have returned have not yet picked up their bikes again. The detox break, both physically and especially mentally, is necessary, but soon everything will have to be reworked. Villa already has his phone ready for the first round of surveys.
«Everyone is resting until at least November 11th – he explains – in the meantime I'm planning the first training camp of the season. We will be together for 10 to 12 days, probably in Sicily, in Noto for an appointment that also turned out to be fortunate for our fate.We will have another training camp from December 5th to 18th, most likely in Valencia, Spain, but we are still waiting for confirmation and there we will work both on the road and on the track."
An already quite intense start…
And that's not all. We also have a planned event for December.a couple of competitive appointments, in two events, the second of which in Anadia in Portugal, then I hope that around Christmas we will be able to return to training in Montichiari.
Speaking of racing, winter is also a pretty intense time for track racing, between the Champions League and the 6 Days. Are you in favor of the kids competing in these events?
Very much in favor! The advance of the European elections requires us to speed things up as much as possible. For example, I intend to bring the men's national team at San Juan, to race on the road and accumulate kilometers to get ahead of the game. For the women, the schedule and the commitments of the girls within their teams still need to be evaluated.The continental race will be the first of the year, the time is very tight, so the more races they do, the better.
Who will be involved in winter track activities?
In Champions League they will compete in the men's category Scartezzini e Donegà, among women Barbieri e Zanardi, In addition to The evening in the speed tests. For the 6 Days I only know that Viviani gave his approval to take part in the Rotterdam Classic.
Talking with Milan, he mentioned his availability for the 6 Days, which would be useful to broaden his experiences beyond the pursuit, but he knows very well that, in addition to the needs of the team, even a 6 Days cannot be improvised…
Jonathan is an asset that must be preserved. He already has the quartet, I know the team expects a lot from him and plans to use him a lot on the road. I don't want to burden him with commitments or even enter into a collision course with the team. Bahrain Victorious. I always want to maintain a healthy, balanced relationship with the various teams, I fit in where I can.I shouldn't be seen as an obstacle, but rather as a help in managing the riders. The results are clear…
The December races could be useful for boys and girls to compete in Madison, you have often emphasized how racing experience is lacking for our boys.
These are opportunities to be seized on the fly, also for another reason. I have to keep an eye on the rankings all the time, so that every athlete who is of interest for the world championships has the 250 points that the UCI requires. I don't want to chase access in the final weeks, also because of the discussion I made earlier about not creating problems for the teams, so if points can be earned during this period, so be it.
Which situation is easier to handle with boys or girls?
At this moment there is more clarity in the men's field, the calendars are outlined and day after day the teams are clarifying what they want from the riders at least in the first part of the season. Pre-season retreats are also fundamental for me, to understandFor the girls, the situation is more unclear. I know many will be going to Australia, but there's a lot to figure out. That's why I can't wait to start making contact, phone and diary in hand...
