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Lesser known races 2023 edition

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The rise of Vergallito tells you everything you need to know about the state of Italian youth cycling. He was completely overlooked during his u23 years. He quit cycling with zero awareness about his potential. Went back to school, studied a lot of papers and researches, copied other pros (from different sports also) training methods, started a podcast, became a trainer himself. He achieved a much higher level by training alone (and using an evidence based approach) than when he was with his u23 team...

His podcast with Mattia Gaffuri, another forme u23 rider, recent winner of the New York granfondo, is really enlightening.
 
The rise of Vergallito tells you everything you need to know about the state of Italian youth cycling. He was completely overlooked during his u23 years. He quit cycling with zero awareness about his potential. Went back to school, studied a lot of papers and researches, copied other pros (from different sports also) training methods, started a podcast, became a trainer himself. He achieved a much higher level by training alone (and using an evidence based approach) than when he was with his u23 team...

His podcast with Mattia Gaffuri, another forme u23 rider, recent winner of the New York granfondo, is really enlightening.
My impression is that outside of the guys coming up in the Trentino & Friuli (in the junior and u23 ranks) it's doom and gloom (if we ignore the Track guys, who have actually good coaches from the national team looking at their development since a young age). Tiberi also had a coach from the NT following him as a junior and Milesi started cycling really late after a football injury.

The more I look at it the more I'm convinced that looking at numbers and a young cyclists training log over the last 1-2 years is a much better indicator of his potential than results when it comes to getting a chance in the u23 ranks (or even later). Vergallito only started cycling in the junior ranks, so of course it would take him some time to catch up and he wouldn't get results there and maybe even as a first year u23 rider.
 
My impression is that outside of the guys coming up in the Trentino & Friuli (in the junior and u23 ranks) it's doom and gloom (if we ignore the Track guys, who have actually good coaches from the national team looking at their development since a young age). Tiberi also had a coach from the NT following him as a junior and Milesi started cycling really late after a football injury.

The more I look at it the more I'm convinced that looking at numbers and a young cyclists training log over the last 1-2 years is a much better indicator of his potential than results when it comes to getting a chance in the u23 ranks (or even later). Vergallito only started cycling in the junior ranks, so of course it would take him some time to catch up and he wouldn't get results there and maybe even as a first year u23 rider.
You make valid points.
At the same time if your training regime, nutrition ("don't eat!") and general approach to sports is all wrong your numbers will hardly tell how big your engine is, unless you're a total freak like Evenepoel. Nobody would have given a contract to Vergallito by looking at his numbers when he was an u23.
 
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