CESANO MADERNO – Every day by 19pm, the coaches of the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe must send the analysis of their athletes' race data to the Giro's responsible technicianStarting this year, Ralf Denk's team has decided that coaches will not be present at the competitions, but will instead take care of the training camps. For this reason, Paolo Artuso these days It is located in Sierra Nevada with the Tour group and there we reach him by telephone on the eve of the Champoluc stage, the one in which his pupil Giulio Pellizzari could reply the excellent performance of Valentine's Day of Brentonico.
There is a lot of curiosity: How much is the rider from the Marche region worth in this Giro d'Italia won in extremis?, in which he also finds himself without the captain who had wanted him at the start? We are clearly not talking about a neo-professional, but of a young athlete who has been racing among the greats since 2023, yet the jump to the WorldTour is a challenging test, for which Giulio has so far been ready.
Tell us, Paolo, how is Pellizzari really doing?
So far, it's been really going strong. He already achieved important numbers in the dirt stage, as well as in the Asiago stage And on other occasions, he was always there, tripping up the ranks. Both in terms of numbers and especially in terms of chemistry, the situation is excellent. The Valentine's Day stage showed it. For his stats, he put up a great performance. More than anything, it expressed excellent values after 5.000 meters of altitude difference. It was almost close to his best of the year: he had already gone very strong also in Catalunya. Even in the tests it made a good step forward compared to previous years and the trend of this Giro is showing great performances in efforts from 5 to 30 minutes.
Does the fact that he managed to set a best after 5.000 meters in the third week mean we have a Grand Tour athlete in front of us?
We took it, seeing in him a talent for the Grand ToursWe were looking for a rider for this type of terrain. He's not an athlete for short, explosive efforts, but It has a great engine for long climbsThen, if necessary, you can also dedicate yourself to races like the Ardennes or a Tirreno-Adriatico if the route is not so tough, training on qualities that perhaps he is a little less brilliant at at the moment.
How long have you been working with him?
I've known him for a few years, I gave him a test when he was a second year student or a first year juniorGiulio is also a bit Venetian on his father's side; his Venetian grandparents live quite close to my house, in the other valley. We've seen each other a few times in the past and I've run some tests on him. On a purely professional level, however, we started in October last year, without touching anything that he did with Bardiani. We saw each other at the Giro del Veneto last year, which was the last race and from there we started working a little more closely together to transition from one team to the other.
If you had to say it now, what kind of rider was the Pellizzari you encountered in October?
It's very strong. It's on pace, so it has very high power at the threshold level. It also has a good engine at maximum oxygen consumption level.Let's say it doesn't have great anaerobic power: it's not very glycolytic, as we say. It means that on short climbs it suffers because at a muscular level it has slow fibres. Consequently, the longer the climbs, the more its greatest quality comes out. When there are 5.000 meters of altitude difference, he struggles a little less than the othersLast year's double ascent of Monte Grappa is proof of this, but we've been following it for some time.
Did you have to change your preparation much compared to the previous one?
I have to say he did a good job. When I take on a new rider, I also do a reconnaissance of his historyI'm going to see what he did and how, and I have to say that he worked very well with Reverberi. He created an excellent foundation, so the athlete we welcomed already had an excellent level, both structurally and mentally.So in his case, the Bardiani youth project is working, we can't say otherwise, and he was its beacon. But then... when he arrived in our team's larger facility, we put things in order a bit.
In what way?
Being a WorldTour, we have a more certain race calendar and this is certainly convenient. We set up the work at altitude so as to give him two stimuli before the Tour of Italy, which is what I wanted. Two three-week periods, which you can afford because having a larger budget also helps you work better. Maybe in the past he wasn't able to do two blocks before the Giro, let alone three-week blocks.So basically we worked like this. Giulio had a quiet winter with a gradual progression of the load. We added more gym, more aerobic base in the winter, then he would have had to do the UAE Tour, but he got sick. For this reason we moved him to Catalunya and showed him another hill, because even in Spain he would have been an important man for Roglic.
When did people start talking about the Giro?
During the altitude tests we do to see how they are, we had already started talking about it in the performance staff. There were numbers that made one lean towards that choice and so, right during Catalunya, we decided to set it on the Giro d'Italia which was not initially in the program. Usually it works that first we reason among ourselves, then we propose it to the rider, because if he is motivated to do things, it works much better. And he was immediately happy, because already we had done him a half… injustice by not letting him participate in the Tirreno, which arrived in front of his house. So when we told him he was going to race in Italy, he was super happy.
What did the change of plan involve?
After Catalunya we had a week of complete rest, without touching the bike. And then we went back to TeideIt's been a scant three weeks, because I preferred to send him to Liège why he was gaining experience and why he had never had it.
Such a young boy on Teide with Roglic: how did he find it?
Giulio is lively, so everything is easier. Also, the Giro d'Italia group is excellent, they all get along well.A super natural insertion.
You mentioned increased load, but we're talking about a rider who'd already been a professional for three years, right?
Clearly we didn't work like with a new pro. We measured the loads, it made a little less volume than the larger ones. Then we sent him home for 10 days before the Giro d'Italia, to help with the mental aspect. I took away a little bit of high intensity and kept the gym also on Teide and before the Giro d'Italia. We increased the threshold time, because by raising it a little, you also improve your maximum oxygen consumption.. In short, when you have a big engine, training it is quite simple.
What if I had to identify a needed improvement now?
We still have to understand how strong it is in the time trial and aerodynamicallyWe need to spend some time on this and we will definitely do so next winter. He needs to improve on a tactical level, he needs to waste a little lessIf you are tactically strong, it means you are also mentally strong, and this happens with natural maturation. Always being ahead and always in the right place mentally is very costly.. Therefore, he shouldn't rush into anything, because he can still grow, he's not at his best yet.
Is he precise in his work?
He does everything 100 percent. I sat down with him several times to explain things to him.If he understands why he has to do certain jobs, he, like the others, will follow you fully. I usually always explain the reasons why they do certain things rather than others. Our job is to individualize the workloadEvery rider is different, and this can be seen from their files and physiological profiles. So you start by doing the lactate test, then the maximum consumption or calculating the glycolytic capacity, and so on. By doing all these things, You have a really general picture of the athlete and it's easier for us to individualize the work.
Giulio seemed irresistible on Valentine's Day, a little less so in Bormio: what did his files say?
Did the Mortirolo very good and in the end, with that more explosive and less suitable type of path for him, he defended himself well. Then he had certainly spent a lot the day before, but overall also good in the Bormio stage.
And how is he recovering?
Having lots of red fiber helps him recover quickly. Every day he writes to me: “Incredible, what a leg I had!”We talk every day, because just looking at the numbers is limiting. We need to match the numbers to the rider's feeling, like when you do a lactate testYou look at your heart rate, you look at your average power, you look at your lactic acid concentration, but the other thing you ask about is the perception of effortBecause if the perception of effort also corresponds to metabolic fatigue, then everything fits and the reading is correct.
The rest is an explanation the role of the reference coach with whom to exchange feedback on a daily basis, which even takes care of booking flight schedules based on training sessions. It's a complex structure, designed by the team to keep every aspect under control. It's professionalism 3.0, necessary to run at certain pacesLet's just hope that when it comes down to it, if it comes to shooting, Pellizzari draws on the numbers of the soul, throw away the bandana and bite the air like you did on TuesdayThat kind of competitive spirit doesn't translate into a computer; you just have to look him in the eyes to understand it.
