Who knows if his amateur sports director would have ever imagined seeing him so high one day. We're talking about Marco Milesi, former technician of Lorenzo RotaThe Lombard was the Italian rider who improved the most this season. His exploit also led him to be the best Italian in the ranking UCI. He “beat” him with a lunge Matteo Trentin, with the good end of the season.
However Lorenzo rose the most in the rankings, going from 463rd in 2020 to 109th in 2021, and finally to 48th this year. Yet the athlete today in force at Intermarche Wanty Gobert He didn't have an easy first part of his career. In fact... Visconti a few days ago recalled its vicissitudes.
Difficult passage
Together with Milesi, who directed Rota at Trevigiani, we try to better outline this boy's profile.
"Lorenzo is from Bergamo like me," Milesi says. "They had recommended him to me when he was a junior. He had told me about him." Dino Zambelli, who is one of our sponsors. He is passionate and told me: “Marco, follow this boy because he’s strong, strong…”. I saw his results, his tests and all in all it was also easy to take him because he wanted to race in Trevigiani. In that batch there were also Simone Ravanelli e Simone Consonni. They were a nice little group."
Visconti had told us about an athlete dedicated to his work, a generous man. And Milesi's stories only confirm the Sicilian's words.
«I remember a determined boy who worked hard. Maybe he didn't win much with me, but if you looked at the finishing order, he was always there. He had great consistency of performance."
In the right team
Yet despite everything, Milesi didn't expect Rota to reach such heights.
«Lorenzo – explains Milesi – He had a rough patch when he arrived among the pros. and, if you like, in the early years that followed. However, it's also true that he made the leap at a very young age, and not everyone at the time made the leap so early. Over time he managed to find the right team. He had no shortage of qualities and as a result he made the leap in quality.
«In Intermarché he found the right environment. Talking with BeerHe tells me they're happy with him. They're satisfied, they trust him, and he feels it. Now he's unlocked himself and will do even better. He might even move to a stronger team, but it's not so certain that if you go to a bigger team you'll find the same good situation.
«Honestly, I didn't expect this feat, but not because, as I just said, he didn't have the qualities. But given how his career had gone, with those so-so seasons… It was difficult to recover, especially for a young guy like him. It was a bit like Cattaneo, which has had 2-3 years of empty passage. And showing off at this level is tough."
Well done to Rota, then: for his qualities, but also and above all for the tenacity he demonstrated, for not giving up.
Tenacity in the DNA
And Rota's tenacity emerged early, in his second year as an U23, at the Giro delle Pesche Nettarine, a major stage race from about ten years ago. Filippo Gana He set fire to the flats to give his sprinters the win, shuffling the cards in the final stage. Chaos ensued, and it did, in a stage that on paper should have been uneventful. Lorenzo remained cautious, overcame the pitfall, and prevailed.
«Lorenzo never gave up – Milesi recalls – He was tough. He always stayed ahead, and in the end, without winning a single stage, he won the race. His tenacity impressed me. I knew he had quality, but that race was concrete proof of it. Especially with that field."
And tenacity pays off and brings improvements. Improvements that are not finished for Milesi: Rota has margins.
«For me it has – explains the technician of the Biesse-Carrera - And He also has them in the way he manages himself. He has to focus on one-day races.I see that after the stage races, especially after the Grand Tours, he can go fast. He has a remarkable gear change. Not to mention that It can still improve on the performance front, given his maturity as a pro».
Speed target
In this sense Rota has already declared that wanting to get back to working on the quick start. He's improved a lot on the climbs, but now he wants to get that characteristic back.
«If it improves a little more on the start, that's fine – concludes Milesi – but always keep going uphill. If he closes that small gap in the sprint, it becomes a real powerhouse. When he's in good shape, you can't easily drop him on the climbs. I had trained him for these characteristics: short climbs and speed. I didn't want to distort his nature because he had the tenacity to hold on to climbs. He was and is explosive.
«For this reason too I see him well in races like the Amstel Gold Race or the Flèche Wallonne. He's an ideal sprinter for those short, tough finishes. Although he also proved to be strong in San Sebastian, which is more of a climber's race."
