Suddenly the Roubaix velodrome It's getting quieter. It's time for the team pursuit final. Competing for the world title are France on one side and Italy on the other, with the quartet of wonders. When the speaker announces the “Olympic champions” not a fly flies. The tension is palpable. The crowd knows who we are, but they're running home.
Testaa head
We leave. Milan He extends the throw a bit and switches after two or so turns. We're immediately ahead. But France doesn't give up and at a certain point passes us. Villa Then, as he's in the curve immediately after the finish, he starts to make different gestures but doesn't flinch. He remains perfectly composed.
He waves his hand as if to call his boys, who, coincidentally, immediately drop two tenths in one lap. France, however, bites. We remain impassive. The last three laps, 750 meters.The Azzurri's advantage is slim, but suddenly Villa's "calmness" becomes clear. France loses quite a bit. We, on the other hand, are still down to four. The French are stretching out. They literally open up. Only two remain. To keep up with our pace they destroyed themselves. The coach gets up. He puts away the tablet he'd been using to track his times even before the race ended, and heads toward the finish line.
Lasta curve, the boys appear and he welcomes them with raised arms.
Demolition table
«Everything went as it was supposed to go – says Villa almost moved – We knew that France would definitely hold us until 2.000 meters. And that's why we didn't get upset when they passed us. But you have to keep that pace until the end. We've set up a schedule to keep them there and make them work hard.
Arriving with four riders doesn't mean they didn't give it their all, but it does mean they stayed on schedule. And in the finale, Pippo acted like a Pippo, but without overdoing it. Why? Because there was no need. He arrived just right, in the final two and three-quarters laps. They were already down to three, which hadn't happened in the previous two races, and then they even fell apart. A sign that they raced beyond their limits, that we carried them there.
«If four of us didn't arrive, Villa would beat us up.! – he says Ganna We had to look good, show off our jerseys, helmets, everything! Jokes aside, we knew we were going strong and that it was a tough race. Against the French, we couldn't underestimate anything. They were racing at home, they had the fans on their side, and you could feel it during the race too. But once again, we were the strongest. And then winning the Olympics and the World Championships... I don't know if that's ever happened before."
Four of us arrived
From this perspective, everything seems easy. Italy is imperious. And that's true, but as always, there's a lot of work and suffering behind every pedal stroke.
«I would like to say – Villa continues – that This is the victory of the group. A victory fully shared by LamonIt's the victory of the group. I have deployed Bertazzo Because he was doing well in training, and because I didn't include him in Tokyo because I could only field four players, and the fifth was Viviani, who was playing for the Omnium. But I told him to be ready, that day and today. There would have been a chance for everyone. He did, and now he's a world champion. It's his merit, and maybe mine, that I included him. Given his good performance yesterday, I also included him in the final to reward his consistency. I repeat: he was already in such good shape in Tokyo. And I knew that if I needed him, he was ready."
The strength of the group
Seen from this perspective, it all seems almost too easy. Okay, so we've witnessed an imperious Italy, but there's a lot of work behind it.
Ours is a group that's always hungry. This World Cup was no less than the Olympics. Watching it go by every year and never get it... well, it burned. And finally we managed to take this titleI'm no less nervous than in Tokyo. I've been nervous for two days. These are not normal results. These are races that we feel very strongly about, and every time is new. Cycling is like that: one year you're world champion, and also Olympic champion, but the next year you have to confirm yourself. I know it and the guys know it."
"I," Villa concludes, "wish they could keep going, and I'm not jealous, even on the road! But I'd like to know that these results keep them on the track. May they continue to work consistently. Others are growing, and France teaches us that. He wasn't there in Tokyo, but here he made us sweat. I have a good group, including young people, and I already see it as an Olympic qualification perspective. Paris 2024. I told the boys yesterday too: they shouldn't complain about the substitution."
