«For the Sanremo I was thinner, for the rest of the season, however, I was a kilo and a half, two more. In the end, I didn't have this need to be super-tight. And if I reached the top with an extra minute of delay, it wouldn't have made much difference to me. The Sanremo sprint is all about legs, it's not one of those explosive ones at 70 miles an hour." We "turned" this sentence around Alessandro Petacchi, to a current sprinter, and what a sprinter, Simone Consonni.
Leaner sprinters
It was enough to repeat this phrase from the La Spezia native to him that the champion of the Cofidis He immediately understood the point: is it still possible today for a sprinter to carry around a "ballast", even a minimal one like that of AleJet?
"I believe," says Consonni, "that a lot of things have changed in recent years. I've never raced with Petacchi or the sprinters of his generation, and I find it hard to make a comparison. In recent years, the super-pure sprinters of the past have disappeared. Today to win in sprint you have to go fast uphill And the last Sanremo was proof of that. It confirmed how important it is to go fast uphill.
«The sprinters who finished in front went very fast on the Cipressa and the Poggio».
In fact, they arrived at the attack on the Poggio with 24-25 men and, except for two or three gregarious riders, they were all leaders. Inside there were people as fast as demare, Nicelo, Pedersen, Girmay, Matthews...
«In addition The races are getting tougher for sprinters as organizers add more and more climbs. Nowadays there are one or two real flat riders in the Grand Tours. Not to mention that in racing there are very strong riders who make a mess even when you don't expect it or from far away. So rather than focusing on pure sprinting, you try to pay attention to the weight/power ratio to get over the top in the best possible way, to save energy for the sprint."
Short blanket
«And it is very difficult to find this compromise. You, sprinter, can be leaner, but you shouldn't lose power. It's the Pandora's Box of modern cycling... if you find the solution! And it's not easy. The blanket is short: if you improve in the short term, you lose in the uphill battle.
«For example, I This year I've been working harder in the gym to improve my sprinting. And ultimately, in the short sprints, my watts are the same, but I feel better on the climbs. And I weigh two kilos more!
To tell the truth, this surprises us a little in Consonni's case. We would have expected such a metamorphosis more last year in view of the Track Olympics (remember that Simone is part of the golden quartet), where more power is needed.
«Clearly it's two kilos of strength and In fact, this change began last year precisely because of the track and since I saw that it paid off, I continued. As I said, the values on the short are more or less the same, but I express myself better on the 10'".
Tactical issues
Returning to Petacchi and partly also to Consonni's speech, that extra kilo or two led to the "old" sprinter having a certain spark. But apparently that's not possible today. You have to earn your sprint.
“Exactly, you have to earn it,” Simone continues while giving massages during the Northern Italy campaign. “Today, the stages almost always have an altitude difference of 2.000 meters or more. Last year at the Giro the only flat stage was the Verona stage. And this, combined with the attacking mania of these very strong riders, changes things for us. It will be great for the show, but less so for us sprinters!
«I'll give you an example. At the Tirreno in a sprinters' stage Alaphilippe e pogacar They attacked with 40 kilometers to go, and it was a real pain for us. From an insignificant climb, an action that was almost like a climbing stage developed."
The final kilometers
And then – Consonni enthusiastically relaunches – there is also another aspect that in my opinion is important: the approach to the sprints. They say there's anarchy in preparing for a sprint today. It's no longer like it used to be, when the top four or five sprinters had their own train and with ten minutes to go, everyone would line up. We'd go fast, but we'd be consistent (and covered, ed.).
«Now the last ten kilometers are much more intense. You go from one wheel to the other. You climb, you catch the wind... they're jumps, sprints that require power. They're very demanding 10 minutes, and if you expend those watts there, you won't have any left for the sprint later."
Cipollini and the sprinters of the past could have "neglected" the uphill work a little more Today, a powerful rider like Jakobsen is certainly faster uphill than a Cipollini, but in a sprint?
Cipollini and the sprinters of the past could have "neglected" the uphill work a little more Today, a powerful rider like Jakobsen is certainly faster uphill than a Cipollini, but in a sprint?
Jakobsen or Cipollini?
Given the tougher courses, the lack of trains, and leaner sprinters, one wonders whether the sprinters of the past were stronger. Or rather, whether they had a higher peak.
"Compared to other kids," Consonni concludes, "I didn't follow cycling much, so it's a little harder for me to judge. However, from what the experts tell me, our average push during the race is higher than in the past. And this takes away our clarity and power. From what I've heard, racing used to be more controlled and, ultimately, I think the sprinters of the past had more power in the short distances."
It's never easy, and perhaps not even fair, to compare riders from different eras. However, since we're not talking about centuries but rather two or three decades, let's venture a "comparison." If you were to put it on a straight line, Fabio Jacobsen and a Mario Cipollini back then, the Lion King would almost certainly beat him in the sprint, but it remains to be seen whether the same Cipollini of the past would be able to stay in the group today. Probably the Petacchi and Cipollini of that time would be leaner today. And therefore with a little less energy.
