Diego Bragato is often silent, but observe everything that happens on the trackHe often approaches Marco Villa and they talk and decide what to do, while other times It is the riders who turn to him for clarifications on the type of work what they are about to do. The Venetian technician entered this velodrome for the first time during the preparation for the London OlympicsIt was Villa himself, faced with that challenge, who asked for the support of the Federal Study Center. And the choice fell on the young man who had already been the reference technician at the Padua velodrome for some time.
Connection between cities
In addition to being Villa's technical collaborator, today Bragato is the contact person for all federal technical commissioners, as part of an ambitious project that aims to achieve a homogeneous technical fabric that is transversal to all the specialties of our cyclingIt is no coincidence that just yesterday the under 23s and juniors met inside the Montichiari velodrome for a series of metabolic tests, the national BMX team for an experimental track preparation project and the boys from Marco Villa's quartet.
What does your commitment consist of?
With the classic groups, so road and track, I try to answer questions from the technicians. With the others, also due to the pandemic that forced us to hold countless video conferences, we've started to get to know each other and plan some very interesting activities. For example, with the downhill guys, he's working on Elisabetta Borgia, psychologist, on how to best manage the stress of departuresWhile with the Bmx, thanks to the support of Marco Compri, we put down a gym training program with weights.
What are the requests of road and track technicians?
At the beginning of the season, we intervene a lot to carry out tests. While during the season it is often support is needed regarding the time trial, with Fabrizio Tacchino who specifically follows this sector. All this work is of great use even regardless of the athletes' performance, because it becomes the daily bread in refresher courses for sports directors. And I have to say that reporting real life experiences has a much greater impact than lessons that are purely theoretical.
So do you agree with Viviani's interpretation of his results?
We grew up together with EliaBefore coming here I had worked on the track in Padua and then as a trainer with Androni Giocattoli, but the appeal of the blue jersey was superiorSo after London we put together a program preparing for the Rio Olympics and we learned a lot from each other. I was very pleased that Elia wanted to give continuity to this work and that over the years, even when he was racing for Team Sky, his trainers were perfectly aligned with our way of working. The Ganna's preparation integrates with the one he plays with the national team.
Seeing so much diversity on the track inevitably brings us back to talking about multidiscipline.
I hope that the technicians will slowly understand that the message to be conveyed is that Multidiscipline does not mean being a winner in all specialties, but rather broadening the athlete's abilitiesThe kid who learns on a BMX will have an incredible command of the vehicle. If he then moves onto the track, he will learn to be part of a team, in a small environment like the velodrome where group dynamics are taken to the extreme. If, however, we're talking about the highest level, multi-discipline means that the top road racer can carry out work on the track of a much higher quality than what he would do on the road, both for security reasons and for the use of relationships that he would not otherwise use. So, Multidiscipline is useful for growth when you're young, then it becomes the tool to recall training qualitiesTo put it simply, you could ask Usain Bolt today to train for a marathon, but you could never ask a trained marathon rider to train for the 100 meters and be competitive.
Are there technical differences between the various technical commissioners?
Certainly technicians have different originsSo if for example Salvoldi has titles and the level of dialogue with him is of a certain type, Villa amazes me every time with its visual impactHe notices what's about to happen before I do, and before it happens. The combination of these experiences is what makes the project extremely interesting and constructive. Converting what comes from their experience into scientific language forms the technical heritage of our FederationI'd love to organize a roundtable discussion with all the technicians, because everyone would benefit. Days like yesterday, with so many technicians present, are just one example.
There used to be a reluctance to venture into the streets, accused of stealing away the best talent. Is that still the case?
From the outside it might seem like they are jealous, but working it emerges that they are coaches who want the boys to succeedHistory teaches us that many athletes have moved from one discipline to another, bringing with them the know-how they learned as children.
Is cyclo-cross, which is in fact the only non-Olympic discipline, excluded from all this discussion?
Indeed the cross would fit well with both the road and the trackWe're not that far apart in terms of strength and explosiveness, as long as we modulate our efforts well. Obviously, improvisation becomes detrimental. However, Cross-country strength progressions and high-frequency pedaling work on the track are complementaryThis is why we ask youth teams to broaden the range of disciplines their members practice. An athlete like Rachele Barbieri, who practiced cross-country skiing as a young girl, benefits from repeating this type of effort even now, because she knows exactly how to combine the two workouts.
How many people, besides Bragato, are on the Research Center's operational staff?
Let's say I'm the one who does the most training, between 120 and 150 a year. Then there's Marco Compri who takes care of weightlifting, Fabio Fabiani who keeps the database updated, Fabrizio Tacchino who follows the time trials. Then, occasionally, we rely on the collaboration of some technicians who trained with us and now work in WorldTour teams, like Claudio Cucinotta e Mattia MichelusiFinally, there's Silvia Epis, head of youth cycling.
What is the relationship between Bragato and the athletes?
I'm not a technical commissioner who has to make choices, I can be more of a friend. Sometimes I'm the one they vent to.I raced with Elia Viviani, I was Lamon's coach when he was a rookie and I was working in Padua, the same story for Scartezzini and Bertazzo. Luca Mozzato himself, who returned to the track yesterday for the first time in a long time, remembered me from my Padua days. I really hope this project goes ahead, because it is delivering important results.
