With the arrival at Jayco-AlUla, Vendrame will resume his collaboration with Fabio Baronti, first known as a rider and then found again when he turned to the CTF Lab of Martignacco, at the gates of Udine. Baronti left the mothership of the CTF Friuli this year., absorbed in the meantime by Team Bahrain Victorious, and has taken the Australian route. From rider to masseur, this is his path, then the degree in Sports Science and now the role of WorldTour coach in the working group coordinated by Marco Pinotti.
Some ideas in the words of the Treviso rider they made us think about small changes in route, which Baronti helped us decipher, waiting for the relationship to get going and for hypotheses to be replaced by tangible programs.
«I've known Andrea all my life – he confirms – we even raced together, but we were never teammates. He was born in 1994, I was born in 1995, we played in the youth team together.. When he was a sophomore and I was a freshman, he was at Fast Bianchin Club, I to the Ormelle RebirthWe also met in the under 23s, with a one-year gap. But in the end we are from the same area, so it happened that we trained together sometimesUntil 2022-2023, having moved from Androni to Ag2R, he decided to change coach and he was followed by the CTF Lab. Not by me personally, but by the center anyway and in the end I think he found himself well».
Is it easier to start working with a rider you already know?
A lot. We've already had the opportunity to meet in the past, so the initial phase of creating a personal relationship will be much simpler, because in fact many components have already been done. The initial process will be faster.
What do you think of Andrea Vendrame as an athlete at this point in his career?
Definitely a versatile rider, from a purely athletic point of view. He holds his own well on medium-length climbs and has excellent speed, so It performs well on mixed courses, where there is perhaps some selection and then you have to make the most of the fast acceleration in the final stages. Plus, he has the advantage of being very intelligent.
Then?
So moving away from the purely performance-related issue, he has the eye to enter the right escape, to make the action at the right timeThese are elements that are often difficult to quantify, but which do the difference between playing for a win or being left out, even if you had the legs to play it.
In your opinion, is there any area where he can still improve?
Every coach has his own methodologies, so once you've established the foundation, find the key to understanding and how to work on the small details. From a performance point of view, I believe that at 31 years old Andrea cannot have macroscopic changes, that's his type of athlete. I believe that the desired improvement is linked to a small margin in terms of power-to-weight ratio, to be even more resistant and have a slightly wider range of races. Resist in even smaller groups than the ones it is in now and this would clearly be positive, without compromising the excellent quick start. And then I believe that the other side of the coin, which is not solely linked to performance, is the fact of finding a suitable calendar that can highlight its qualities.
Andrea also talked about the calendar needing to be reviewed…
Many times the same athlete goes through a series of races, where he tests himself in the right way and also finds the right confidence, expressing himself at the best level. Instead, perhaps Wrong choices can lead you to lose some confidence or prevent you from expressing yourself at your best.It's about combining the two aspects. Be in good shape for the appointments that will be set together with the team.
In light of this, would you find it curious to know that Vendrame rarely raced the Sanremo and never the Amstel Gold Race?
I believe that in Italy there is more than a few athletes who have shown that they can be competitive even on this type of stage, which are sometimes seen as too big. I'm thinking of someone like Velasco, who for better or worse this year took home a fourth place in LiègeAs for Vedrame, we haven't talked specifically about the calendar and the main events of the season yet, but I think those are races that suit him. This year too, with the form he had at the Tirreno after having won the Colfiorito stage, I think he could have been competitive at Sanremo. At least he could have try to have his say.
In your opinion, is its acceleration equally fearsome after 250 kilometers?
Certainly, also for what he has demonstrated over the years, Vendrame is a stamina rider even during races. To be clear, at the Giro d'Italia he is someone who perhaps, without having astonishing numbers or much above the average, he is able to express them even in the third week when the others are more tiredIf he gets the right move, he's always a very dangerous player, even in these longer races. Clearly, if they decide to seriously focus on him with clear objectives, it's clear that there will be work on being resistant even after five or six hours of racing and being able to do the same numbers he does even when he's fresh.
We're talking about work to be done: what's Vendrame's relationship with training?
He seems like someone you know. He's not an executor, a little robot that just does things.He's someone who manages to relate in the right way with the people around him and to give super precise feedback on his things. As far as I'm concerned, speaking as a coach, that's always a positive thing. He's the kind of athlete that gives you something back., the feedback to be even more focused when going into specifics and approaching events.
Speaking for a moment about Fabio Baronti, how was this first WorldTour year away from his friends at CTF?
I'm super happy with the environment I found. I accepted the challenge of stepping out of my comfort zone and I was fortunate to find a very high level of professionalism and empathy from a personal point of view with many of my colleagues, starting with Pinotti. From a professional standpoint, it's clearly a big leap, which has put me in a position to prove I'm up to the task. It encourages me to explore new things, to ask myself more questions.
What do you think of the group of athletes?
This year the whole team has gone on a journey, the performance group also questioned itselfWe tried to ask ourselves the right questions to provide answers that would allow us to get closer to those currently a step above us. I believe in the potential in this group. It's often clear that having strong athletes helps; having talent is a great advantage. But it's also a great challenge to get the most out of a group of strong and motivated athletes.People who have the maturity to listen to instructions and put in that little bit extra, which allows you to achieve the result. What Andrea Vendrame does very well, for this reason I believe that his profile is very suitable for our team.
