Jayco AlUla has pulled off a great market coup during a hot and busy summer of cycling. The Australian team took Davide De Pretto laid down by the Ointment. A rider who has demonstrated a lot in these years as an under-23 and who leaves the Veneto continental team after two seasons and many good placings.
Followed by 2022
De Pretto is 21 years old, in modern cycling it is the right age to turn professional, and Jayco knows it too, so much so that it has been following him for a year nowHe had started with a summer internship in August, where he had taken the measurements. Then came the call to the winter retreat of the Jayco-AlUla e, to complete the circle, here is the signature on a two-year contract that officially brings him to the WorldTour. Marco Pinotti He is one of the technicians who followed him most in his experiences with the Australian team.
«I had followed him – says Pinotti – since the 2022 internship, I've actually been monitoring him since the beginning of that seasonHe arrived in August not in the best of conditions, he was coming from the World Championships in Wollongong and he didn't have much time to settle in and race. However, he hadn't performed badly, at the Giro dell'Emilia he was the only one to finish the race together with Colleoni. While at the Tre Valli della Jayco he was the only one to reach the finish line».
An anno dopo
Then came the call-up to the January retreat, where De Pretto worked a lot with the team. An important renewal of trust, culminating in the announcement of his official arrival at Jayco AlUla, a few weeks ago.
“Those days working with us in the winter,” Pinotti explains, “did him good. He certainly put in a good chunk of work., we pushed him out of his comfort zone. He benefited from it, so much so that at the beginning of the season he was went strong. He came third at the Beer, third to Liège U23 and according to the BelvedereHis arrival with us marked the closing of a circle, a journey carefully planned and executed.
«Perhaps – he continues – he could have had an extra year of development among the under 23s, but not at Zalf. Since July we have had an agreement with Axel Merckx's team (Hagens Bergman, ed.) and we want to leave some riders with them who need to grow and mature. But the agreement with Merckx's team came after the one with De Pretto himself."
Setting the scene
The benefits that De Pretto can gain from immediately racing with Jayco-AlUla are linked to his acclimatization. The young Italian comes from a completely different team compared to what a WorldTour can beTaking the right measures will be important for him and the team, so as not to waste too much time.
«His path – says Pinotti again – will have to include an acclimatization period at the beginning of the yearThe biggest obstacle will be the language, that's why in the retreat he did with us in January we put him in a group with the Italians (Zana, de Marchi, sobrero, ed.). It would be ideal to have him make an approach like Engelhardt's. Who has gained more and more confidence and has managed to win two races already in his first season with us..
«De Pretto – explains Pinotti – is a smart rider, he can run well and has a good quick start. A first big goal could be to have him race at the Liège of the big teams, given that he came in third in the under-23 race. It's just a hypothesis, but it's clear that these are the races he likes."
A big change
De Pretto lacks the habit of regularly running stage races, in 2022 he only made oneWhile in 2023 he is at two, perhaps he will do the Giro del Veneto, and that would make it three. It's a low number, however, given that in the cycling of the big names now we work in blocks of work and in stage races, even short ones.
«The leap from Zalf to Jayco – Pinotti continues – is important, We have fewer competitions and more training periods. De Pretto will have to be good at getting used to it and building up great resistance for the following periods. A first point on which to improve will certainly be the long climbs, where he can still grow in weight and characteristics. But he is the prototype of the modern rider: explosive, light, and fast."
How Sobrero?
Jayco-AlUla lost Sobrero, who joined Gasparotto's Bora-Hansgrohe. De Pretto's almost simultaneous arrival raised a question: could replace the Piedmontese?
«De Pretto – concludes Pinotti – is a rider who brings a lot of points and we needed a profile like that. An athlete who can do well from the Basque Country to Romandie and then in the end-of-season classicsWe're saddened by the loss of Sobrero. We tried to keep him, but we couldn't. De Pretto and Sobrero met at the Livigno training camp. I joked to Sobrero: “We've found your replacement, who's faster than you! If you stay, you'll be his domestique.” I was obviously joking, but in one-day races they're similar. the only difference is in the timing.
«In his first year in Astana and his first year with us, Sobrero didn't pay much attention to the road races, sacrificing everything for the time trial. This year we tried to get him back on track, but he was lacking a bit of practice., even though he then won in Austria. With De Pretto, we can immediately focus on his growth in road racing, as we have no other options to focus on. I'd be happy if De Pretto became like Sobrero, or something more. Let's hope the latter leaves us with a nice stage victory at the Vuelta, it would be a nice gift."
