This piece marks an expansion of the Dalia Muccioli's collaboration with bici.PRO goes beyond the aspect of video interviews, in which she began experimenting since the Giro d'Italia DonneHere she talks about her experience as an athlete related to nutrition, coincidentally after reading an article written by Rossella Ratto, with whom she was also a teammate in the national team (opening photo).
Reading Rossella Ratto's interview with Elisabetta Borgia, psychologist and mental coach, regarding mental stress related to eating pressure, inevitably some episodes from the past years came back to mind, when I was still an athlete. Surely a sore point for many boys and girls who practice high-level sports.
Many times we convince ourselves that Weighing less means going faster and consequently achieving a better result in the competition. This may be partly true, because it is useless to deny that the athlete's weight can influence the final performance. But It must also be admitted that there is a very thin line that outlines that very limit: that of anorexia or bulimia.
Personally, I love eating madly, and this has probably always been my fortune. I've never suffered from an eating disorder, but at the same time... I can admit that weight has been a constant thought throughout my career.I was almost "obsessed" with reaching that number on the scale. It was as if a system had been triggered in my head. a mechanism by which only in this way, with that weight and with that physical shape, I could go fast on the bicycle.
That day in Varese
Back to 2013, June 23rd to be precise. That day I won the Italian elite women's road championship in Rancio Valcuvia, near Varese. I won with my heart, with my legs, but above all with my head!
Just that day Dalia left convinced and aware that she could win. Already in the days before she had been studying, thinking of a way to surprise her opponents and so it was.
I managed to do this bring home that beautiful tricolor jersey, on an emotional day to say the leastI was just twenty years old, a good thing or a bad thing? A promising young man, but a mess in my head!
In the following years I continued to achieve good results, but I was unable to meet my expectations and so each time I lost a little bit of self-confidence. As mentioned above, weight was a constant thought in my life..
And that day at Superga
In 2015, I arrived on the eve of the Italian championship with the arrival on the Colle di Superga with 2 kilos more than my ideal weight.
So I convinced myself that even if it could be a finish line suited to my characteristics, I could never win that day.
I decided, in agreement with the team, to anticipate the final climb with a long attack, obviously thinking that the breakaway would be caught before the start of the Superga. By targeting the right breakaway, we reached the start of the climb with a 40” advantage, but in my head it was unthinkable to win with that weight.
I decided to give it a try anyway and I arrived third at the finish line together with Elisa Longo Borghini, with the final victory of a great Elena Cecchini, wearing the jersey of Blue Flames, on the run with me from the start of the race.
Two kilos too many
Already from the previous days I had thought of a solution to remedy those damned extra pounds, but by then it was too late: there was nothing more to do. So my head convinced myself that I was there to participate, to do my job as a follower and nothing more.
I left partly angry with myself. I had been having other thoughts on my mind for months, and probably during that period I had been a little distracted on the nutrition front and I paid the consequences.Thoughts, mental stress, and pressure that I imposed on myself certainly didn't help me get into great physical and mental shape.
Those 2 extra kilos seemed like 10 to me. If I think about it now it seems absurd to me., but sometimes when your head goes off on a tangent it is irrecoverable on some occasions!
After arrival
After arriving I felt a mix of emotions: happiness mixed with anger and disappointment. I always thought that If I had started out more determined and with a different mentality, maybe I could have played differently that day.
It's often easy to criticize from the outside: "Your gear ratio was too hard when you climbed Superga, you were too heavy."
Obviously many people don't know what goes into preparing for a date or especially of a season. Sometimes we think that the life of a cyclist is a privileged one: "You pedal, you do what you like." Yes, that's true, but There is hard work behind it every day, every hour, every minute of the year.
Real professionals
As of today I think it is It is essential for an athlete to be accompanied by both a nutritionist and a mental coach to broaden the vision of the world in which one finds oneself. It is essential to understand that the head always wins over everythingYou can have the legs of a world champion, but if your head isn't in ON mode, you'll never win!
It's a life of sacrifice and renunciation, this wonderful sport: cycling. It can take a lot from you, but at the same time it can give and reward you so much.
