With a few last sparks, this time faithful to its usual calendar, cycling goes away on vacation. A more than deserved holiday given that, with the many uncertainties of a pandemic always lurking, the commitments were many and all expensive.
With autumn advancing it is good practice to take stock. In a 2021 characterized by the emergence of many new talents, and by the reconfirmation of consolidated champions such as Pogacar, Alaphilippe, Roglic, Wan Aert, Van Der Poel and Ganna (but the list would be much longer), all in all Italy is not has disfigured.
We are not competitive in the big stage races (apart from Damiano Caruso’s surprising second place in the Giro d’Italia) but we are raising our heads as we have shown at the Olympics and the World Championships. And also in the last Paris-Roubaix where with Sonny Colbrelli and Gianni Moscon we won first and fourth place. An undertaking that we have been missing in the stone race for 22 years, when Italian cycling was still very competitive at an international level. It was another century, another world, and not just sports. Comparisons leave the time they find. But they help to understand what the current state of the art is.
We talk about it with Davide Cassani, 59, for eight seasons coach of the national team before the rough departure from his post during the Tokyo Olympics. Cassani, after having said no to a role as director of a commercial company of the same Federation, is now at the window waiting to understand what the future holds for him. With one certainty, however: that whatever he does, it will always be in the field of cycling.
But behind a desk?
“No, I’m not ready to sit behind a desk yet. I still want to be on the road, with the runners. I have various projects, some dreams, I’ll see if they are achievable. This is why I preferred to say no to the Federation ».