ZURICH (Switzerland) – The World Time Trial Championships will officially conclude tomorrow with the mixed team relay. A difficult test, made even more challenging by the route and the very high level of the gold contendersAfter their success at the European Championships, the Azzurri approach another match as the favorites. Of the core team that dominated in Belgium, only the Affini and Cattaneo, the other four interpreters will change. In the men's trio, the two golden standard bearers are joined by Filippo Gana. For the three girls, however, the trio is made up of the expert Longo Borghini, joined by Soraya Paladin and Gaia Realini.
«The race – Marco Velo immediately starts speaking – is very tough. I would say a little unusual for a time trial, especially a team one.It's more like a time trial, I think the route is quite challenging for three riders. Not so much because of the climb, which in any case distorts the nature of a time trial, but because of the many descents and various dangerous sections. The teams will encounter several narrow roads, so it will not be possible to launch the trio wellHaving said that, we are here to fight and try to do well, I don't deny it, I have three male riders and three female athletes who are of the highest level."
Did this kind of path create any additional difficulties in assembling the two teams?
It's not an ideal route for Ganna or Affini, but I'm confident in their condition, which is excellent (opening with Marco Velo, photo Federciclismo / Maurizio Borserini). I would also like to highlight the desire of two boys like them to make themselves available and in taking part in this competition. When I started thinking about the various names to include in the list of possible candidates I have not received any positive feedback from other athletes. Especially when I wasn't sure about Pippo's (Ganna, ed.) presence and Edoardo's (Affini, ed.) condition. But in team relay, team spirit is what counts a lot., the three boys are like lost brothers, this will be our plus.
Added to theirs is Cattaneo.
There's little to say about him. Along with all the others... he is a super athlete who is capable of doing very well tomorrowOn the climbs of the Vuelta, when he started to push, only a few riders remained attached to his wheels. This is a good sign; it means he's going strong.
The women's team has practically perfect athletic characteristics for this test.
I think girls are very strong on this type of path, The choice to bring Realini certainly depended on the type of routeI really liked her reaction to the call, she was very happy and motivated to test herself. Longo Borghini and Paladin will be two excellent players for a challenging relay team but one I'm confident in.
Let's jump back to yesterday, focusing on the under-23 time trial. How do you rate the results?
The choice fell on Bryan Olivo e Andrea Raccagni Noviero. I think the first one didn't do a great job, he was expecting something more, however he was coming out of a long period of inactivity. While Raccagni Noviero went strong, considering the route not suited to his characteristicsI'm happy because he did a good race, until the last intermediate he was 30 seconds behind Romeo.
We had the under 23 world champion at home, Milesi. Why didn't he defend the title?
It was taken into consideration, clearly, but he told me he didn't want to participate in the world cup because he hadn't used the time trial bike lately and didn't feel like it.
Both Olivo and Raccagni Noviero competed in very few time trials during the season, for different reasons.
For the under 23s, it's a bit difficult to put together so many time trials. In Italy there are few of them, there was one, albeit short, in Giro Next GenFrom this point of view, we must learn from foreign countries where, both among juniors and under 23s, a time trial is included in any type of stage race. Because, in the end, If you want to grow in terms of results, you need to take care of this discipline, otherwise you don't bring anything home.
Raccagni Noviero runs in a I have to team up, does anything change there?
The good thing is that the professional development teams they have a different mentality, so they provide these guys with time trial bikes. This way they use them to train at least a couple of times during the week. Riding a time trial bike is not the same as riding a road bike., you need to train the gesture.
