#pillola9 TEAM – Season 2022 “YOU DO OR YOU DON’T.”
We have finally arrived in the so-called “off-season,” rest period, I would like to say a few words about this long, “full,” exciting and sometimes surprising season.
A racing season, faced at this level, that is the Elite category: ( more than 60 race days between the month of March and October) is the metaphor of a lifetime, it starts from the winter preparation, various training camps to prepare for the beginning of the race season in March always a bit traumatic.
As you may know, I divide my time between being an athlete, what I am still most passionate, and that of management, of the ASD Women Cycling Project team, now proudly coming to the end of its second season of activity, 2022 was the first full season where we were able to express ourselves on almost the same number and level of races as in previous years.
Having faced such a rich calendar this year has allowed us to develop as a team, structure ourselves better and understand how to organize the race calendar, in order to allow our female athletes to be more and more supported in the before, during and after races; as, despite what one may think, the more solid the supporting structure is, not only at the level of organization and materials, but also at the level of attitude and mental support, the better the quality of team performance will be.
Having had the opportunity to participate in UCI International 1.1 and 1.2 and Lotto Belgium Tour stage races has enriched our experience as a team and as individual components, as well as given our sponsors no small amount of visibility.
The main characteristic we look for in our female athletes and the quality we believe to be fundamental is the desire to put oneself on the line, always and in every situation, to have the desire to stick the number on one’s back and throw oneself into the fray, to experiment, learn, make mistakes, with respect and humility, but without ever feeling less than any other athlete and especially no other “jersey” with which one is side by side; at certain times for some young athletes, but also for the less young ones, some situations that are created in the race can create suggestions.
The other great cycling quality, which we think is important to learn, even investing time and energy to do so, is that of learning to ride, of knowing how to move in a group and with the group, feeling the movements of others, so as to move with the flow and not as a “crazy horse” out of the fray.
This allows you to see what is happening, to be in the right place at the right time, to save energy and to “be in the race” to do this, we think a great opportunity is to take advantage of the races in northern Europe, especially in Belgium and Holland, the so-called kermesses, which very often, from a technical point of view, are more treacherous than the UCI ones; in Belgium they say:” Rond de kerktoren leer je koersen,” which literally translated means, ” Around the church, you learn to race.”
We are currently preparing for the 2023 season, hoping it will be the season of consecration, after two challenging years. Starting a team is no joke, starting it during the Covid period was even more of a challenge, we had to roll up our sleeves, we took every opportunity, never backing down, where we did not arrive by means we went with our hearts, this is our trademark, we offer a service, support, accompaniment/guidance to younger and older athletes, who have cycling in their hearts and want to try to experience, even if only for one season, a real cycling experience.
Personally, I can only be globally satisfied with my 2022, it was by far the most fruitful season in terms of results I have ever had: 15 top 20’s, 22 top 10’s ( of which 7 are top 5’s) and 2 podiums, I missed the win, I finally gained a little more awareness and consistency in dealing with race finishes as well as some confidence in the race, at the performance level I can only thank my coach Ruben Crop, who has guided me for more than a year with great attention and already has in mind how to work to continue to progress.
My personal goal is to close one more gap in physical preparation in order to be even more ready in the finals and to hit some prestigious results in UCI races, using minor races to improve my condition and ability to read the race and enter breakaways.
This year I made a mistake in attitude at the beginning of the season, where I was in a hurry to pick up, at a time when I needed to grow, this state of mind compromised me a good half, thanks to some self-awareness work I was able to shift focus and definitely make up for it from June onward, where I pulled straight ahead stringing a series of very consistent results until the end of the season.
Our motto is ” YOU DO OR YOU DON’T” , meaning something you either do or you don’t do, a phrase that was said to us at the end of the season by one of our new sponsors, and which we made our own from the moment it was said to us, in that in sports as in life certain things cannot be done half-heartedly or with insecurity but one must throw oneself headlong with body and soul in order for them to succeed.
