On Friday evening, during the classic Evening of the Great Cycling of Pesaro, during a moment of conversation hosted by Luca Gregorio and Riccardo Magrini, the microphone ended up in the hands of Gianmarco Garofoli, who didn't think twice. Echoing the words of Magrini, who spoke about the difficulty of Italian cycling, the rider from the Marche region Soudal Quick Step, he placed a decisive shot.
"It's not true that Italian cycling is in difficulty," he said. "There are many strong riders who are achieving excellent results. Pogacar and a few others are in front of everyone, but we're right behind. It's just that the race writers don't say it.We always talk about the same people, about how strong Pogacar is and the others, it's as if they weren't there. Let me give you an example: Alessandro Verre. It has arrived second in the queen stage of the Giro d'Italia, but nobody talked about it."
Magrini replied that it's not true and that no one even remembers who won the Sestriere stage. He was right: we had to resort to the web to remember the name of Chris Harper and all the more reason – one might say – to dedicate more space to VerresAnd as the argument continued for a few more minutes, we were led to make a point that, after Sinner's victory in Turin and the national football team's blunder in Milan, has taken on even greater substance.
The usual two in command
Sinner and Alcaraz are ahead of everyone as Pogacar and Vingegaard: behind them there is emptiness. The only difference is that Sinner is Italian: this is enough to make the results of the players behind him become immense. We don't want to say that they aren't excellent athletes, but having won second-tier tournaments (ATP Tour 250) in the last two years, probably they wouldn't have so much media coverage if there was a non-Italian player in front of Sinner's placeWe talk a lot about Jasmine Paolini, without realizing that an Elisa Longo Borghini is worth a hundred times more.
If there were an Italian of equal caliber alongside Pogacar, as if by magic, the achievements of Ciccone, Scaroni, Ganna, Milan, Viviani, Trentin, and Vendrame would be told with a different emphasis. This is because the mainstream media thrives on hyperbole: the ordinary does not exist and consequently disappearsEven outside of live broadcasts, people prefer to write pages and minutes about Pogacar, falling into repetitive exaltations, rather than delving into what lies behind it. It's an old story that we'll find hard to get out of, a source of exhausting debates that have pushed us to take a different line and that understandably they can become a cause of frustration for invisible athletes….
The Italian WorldTour… in football
What should we say about Italian football, then, if cycling is in crisis? The Champions League hasn't been won since 2010., when Inter also won the Club World Cup. And we have Atalanta to thank for winning the UEFA Europa League in 2024, because if we look back to another Italian victory, we have to go back to Parma's 1999 triumph. In 2006 Italy won the World CupIn 2010 and 2014, they were eliminated in the first round. They failed to qualify in 2018 and 2022. And after yesterday's defeat against Norway, they're in serious danger this time too.
Yet pages and schedules are filled with foreign champions, who wave the flags of our home teams, without thinking (probably) that precisely thanks to this colonialism, Italian players have lost consistency and quality. It would also be useful for them an Italian WorldTour, who had the courage to invest seriously in the youth system?
Continuity wanted
Is Garofoli right? Sticking to the objective and sporting data, probably yes. But since The Italian sports public is, before being knowledgeable, above all a fan, in the absence of continuity and great victories, it will continue to be argued that Italian cycling is in crisis. Continuity makes the difference, Magrini was right about that.. The ciccone This year, he followed up his podium at the 2024 Lombardy Championships, and if he hadn't fallen ill after the World Championships, he likely would have continued in the series. Others, however, have appeared at the door of the big boys and then disappeared.
It's important to give the public some references. Pellizzari for the climbs. Ciccone for the classics. Milan for the sprints. Scaroni and Ballerini for other classics. If all this becomes a habit, it will be harder to ignore certain performances and the arrival of interesting young people like Finn it will be included in an already flourishing movementProblems exist. The youth level is in serious difficulty. But if anyone really wants to take aim at the Red Cross, look at football. If we're in crisis, how are they doing?
