Parliamo Italiano?

A few weeks ago Ian Jackson of the Edinburgh Road Club sent me an email asking whether I knew of any U23 Elite riders who wished to try their hand at Italian road racing.

Peter Cole of Viner bikes, one of the biggest Italian manufacturers of full bikes and frames, then called me. Peter is the UK USA and South African importer of these hand crafted machines and he explained that Viner and another sponsor, natural sports drink and food manufacturer Agisko were hatching plans for a small amateur continental team and wanted to “dip their toes” in Italian domestic racing to see how things faired, and wished to bring us over, all expenses paid for a local event. In the previous month none other than Duncan Urquhart had

Never one to disappoint I set about cajoling a few of my young charges into action. Sean Newington and Dave Smith were (as they say in the racing circles) well up for it and didn’t take much persuasion to add their names to the list. Another young Scot Stuart McManus and temporary UK resident Kiwi, Graeme Stone completed the quartet.

The deal was simple, get to Stansted for early Friday morning flight to Bologna Forli, where Peter would escort us to Collecchio, Parma, check out the course in the afternoon, race Saturday and return home Sunday morning. Nothing too tricky you would think? Ha!

Check in was 5am, which meant we all had to get to Stansted the night before. Dave was coming from Brighton, Graeme from Reading, Stu from Kent and Sean and I from Scotland!! We agreed to get accommodation the previous evening as close to the airport as possible, which actually worked out really well as the Express Holiday Inn was 1mile from the terminal building. Sean and I flew in from Edinburgh on Easyjet while Dave made the nightmare journey across London to meet us. Graeme and Stu found a B&B just a half-mile further away.

Next morning we negotiated a very early breakfast and took the hotel bus to the airport. Graeme and Stu arrived shortly after and we checked in at the Ryanair desk. A payment for the bikes was made which Peter very kindly had said he would re-imburse.

The flight left on time and arrived at Forli, the smallest airport I have seen, 10 minutes early. I was sure the same guy had brought the stairs to the plane and checked our passports! Anyway we grabbed our bikes and headed out of the airport to wait for Peter, the morning sun blazing down.

We were slightly nervous when the first half hour passed and there was no sign of Peter, but around the corner he came striding purposely to meet us minutes later.

Peter sorted us out with a hire car, a Ford Galaxy people carrier, and proceeded to follow his car to our Hotel about 2 hours away.

We stopped for lunch and enjoyed some local Italian pasta dishes before continuing to Collecchio.

There we were introduced to Paolo head honcho of Agisko. He had been looking forward to us arriving and was brimming with enthusiasm for the race the following day, after all this was his local race.

The Hotel was very close to the course so we put the bikes together and set off to get a sneak peak of the circuit. The smaller lap was 10x10kms then 3 laps of a bigger 14.5km loop just to finish you off! The roads were super smooth but were narrow and twisty with some very tight off camber switchbacks to negotiate. I sat in Paolo’s “A Team” van while we showed the boys the course and chatted to Peter and Paolo about Italy, the UK and bike racing. I was impressed with Paolo’s fluent English, but more amazed by Peters Italian!

After the ride we gathered together for the short car journey to sign on at the race headquarters where were given numbers, a magazine and a race profile. Next stop was a local restaurant where we sampled the local culinary delights. This included a pasta which contained Spirulina, which is a superfood reported to have many essential vitamins and important antioxidants. Looks strange with a dark green colour but it tasted ok. In fact Graeme asked to get some uncooked pasta for home! Paolo explained about his companies ethos “per vincere naturalmente” which basically meant “to win naturally” .

We also discussed the content of tomorrows race including timings, weather conditions and of course our chances of making an impact on the results. Paolo offered 1000 euros to any of our boys if they could win the event, which was a great incentive but we all knew that this was an extremely hard thing to do given the fact that none of them had race in Italy before. On the way back to the hotel we droppen in to meet Paolo’s Wife and son Tito, who looks like a mini Salvoldelli!! They have the typical tiled and minimalist style which many Italians homes have. I personally like that but the boss lady wouldn’t be so sure!!

The weather for the race day was to be rainy with possible breaks where the sun would shine. Temperature to be around 14c. Seemed we had brought our UK climate with us!!

The following morning we grabbed a light breakfast. Why light? Well in Italy you get fed lunch before the racing begins, and since the race was at 1pm lunch was at 9.30am! All of the teams were given a lunch ticket for each rider, which gave them enough pasta to feed a small Italian army.

Outside the race headquarters the boys signed on while I picked a handy spot just in front of the start line so they could leave their belongings ready for the race finish. The weathermen of course had it spot on and the usual treacherous European roads were what greeted our four intrepid agisko/viner clad explorers. Now it is well known that in Italy no-one has mudguards on their bikes. They apparently are not keen on wet weather riding, preferring instead to wait until the storm has passed and resume riding when the roads dry up. This process for us northerners takes a lot longer than the 20 minutes the Italians are more used to. This of course also meant that wet weather descending skills in Italy are a little on the poor side, so this would hopefully favour our boys, provided of course they could stay out of the way and upright themselves.

The start list included 204 riders of varying quality from local club riders all the way to the likes of World Cup Track Points Champ Vasili Kiryienka, the Nazionale Russia, which included most of their U23 Worlds team and Italian National U23 Champ Riccardo Ricco. The roads were also single lane, which meant getting anywhere near the front was something of a small miracle.

The race support was also going to be fun, what with police, commissaries cars, motorbikes, and team cars al following. This made the cavalcade more than 30 vehicles long, so servicing the riders would be a bit of a lottery. We had fortunately been drawn 9 th in line so we could see a little of the action when the road in front allowed. Paolo stood at the feeding zone ready for lap 6, where handing bottles was allowed by the race commissaries. This was to look like a disaster zone when the riders appeared for the handoff.

The 10 laps of the smaller circuit started slowly enough but before we had gone even 400 metres Stuart had crashed and had been tangled up with a few others. This meant a short chase, which he managed ok due in no small part to the easy pace being set by the peleton. Around lap 7 Stuart had to retire as his crash injuries started to take effect. One big casualty to the punctures and mechanical problems was Italian U23 champ Ricco who retired looking pretty hacked off it has to be said! . As the laps went by bodies began to be spat out especially on the tailwind flat sections where losing a wheel meant never regaining contact with the front group again. I sat with the start list checking out who was being dropped and to my surprise none of the Eastern European riders were being shelled. The weather had begun to improve so that by lap 5 the sun was shining and was drying up the roads nicely.

Up front a group had formed and had a 1minute lead. The main bunch began chasing them down on laps 9 and 10 ready for the selection on the last 3 bigger loops. On lap 10 young Sean’s legs wouldn’t respond to his request to go faster and he popped out of the main bunch. Peter and I reckoned there may have been around 100 casualties up to that point. Many of these casualties were well known teams including the Liquigas feeder team and Naturino squad.

At this point the selection had been made and the chance to win had gone. The lead group began to splinter after a flurry of attacks from those who had saved their tokens. Dave and Graeme held firm and stayed in what was left of the peleton as it fragmented on the final time around the 14km circuit.

Vasili Kiryienka (Belarus) took the win from Drasutis Stundzia (Lithuania), while Gene Bates (Aus) took 3 rd and the Mountains primes prizes. Dave and Graeme came in a few minutes later as the peleton.

With our hotel being just a short ride away the riders made their way back, riding easy to help begin the recovery process.

Many long tales from inside the race came forth, as we dined a little while later in a busy restaurant nestled in the rolling hills of Reggio Emilia. Dave and Graeme had both said that only positioning and lack of the Italian racing experience meant they felt hungry for more, while Sean and Stuart needed to have a little more gas left in the legs to make the selections. Peter gave the boys all some more of the Agisko Gels which had worked so well in the race so that they could try them in some more races back home. He also gave them some literature about the various models Viner make, no doubt tempting them into spending their money on some posh bike kit!!LOL Paolo couldn’t make the dinner so we stopped on the way back to say thanks for putting up with us for the weekend and for making us feel so relaxed during our trip.

The following morning we departed early with Peter for the drive to Forli airport. Peter was coming back to Stansted with us for some business in the UK, so it gave us a chance to chat to him and get the feel for the Agisko-Viner set-up.

All of us were glowing nicely all the way home in the plane until disaster struck at Stansted airport. Nope it wasn’t a lost passport.

Nope it wasn’t a drug bust

Nope it wasn’t even coffee being spilled on my best kit!

We stood waiting at the oversize baggage door for 10…..15……20…..25 minutes in the vain hope our bikes had surely not been left in Italy?

Only one flight was leaving at that time so how come six bikes including two from another passenger had been left?

Gutted that we had our whole weekend sullied by an Italian baggage monkey we split up and trudged off home hoping that Ryanair would courier our machines direct to our doors as quickly as possible.

On reflection, other than the bikes being sent as it happens, to France, it was the best time away racing all of us had had. The main factor in all of this was Peter and Paolo’s willingness to just involve the riders in as little process as possible and have everything done so that all the young athletes had to do was race.

I personally gained valuable insight into life as a young Professional Cyclist and how hard this whole cycling game is, when you are up against the very cream of world talent.

An experience worth remembering.

Mark Young
A Joe Friel Ultrafit Associate
www.mycyclingcoach.com
Scottish Cycling Endurance Coach
BC Level 2 Club Coach