Track World Championships, Italy double silver in the pursuit

In the Track World Championships which marks the halfway point towards the Los Angeles Games, Italy's cycling team confirms itself at the absolute top of the pursuit, despite the well-known structural problems and the athletes' commitments on the road during the year. A double silver weight, obtained first by the men's quartet and then by the women's quartet, which even after two finals in which the result upon arrival clearly leans in favor of the opponents (Denmark, with their fourth consecutive title, and Great Britain respectively) allows us to look to the future with confidence.

The final of the Azzurri - who qualified 24 hours earlier - has no history from the first pedal stroke: Francesco Lamon, Filippo Ganna, Alessio Magagnotti and Jonathan Milan immediately start slower, with their opponents progressively accumulating an increasingly greater advantage lap after lap. In fact, the Danes reached the finish line with a time of 3'40"865, a time very close to the world record, preceding by 4"731 an Italian quartet where the mechanisms are not oiled and the form is not the best: apart from Lamon, all are returning from a long season on the road, with the inclusion of the very promising 19-year-old Magagnotti (who in the season was able to beat the king of the sprint Paul Magnier at the Tour of Germany) who will need to further shared workouts.

The Italian team's progress, however, was all day by day, with Martina Alzini (replaced in the final by Chiara Consonni), Elisa Balsamo, Martina Fidanza and Vittoria Guazzini starting well in the morning, then in the semi-final they beat Germany quite easily, saving a little in the final. In the final act, Fidanza launches the quartet very well, who arrive at the second advantage in the first kilometre. A pace which, however, fails to find continuity, with Great Britain coming to its senses and in the final overflowing, even inflicting 5"357 on the Italians, who are therefore unable to confirm last year's championship.

While in the other disciplines of the track the panorama is anything but rosy, the satisfaction for the two group trials of the pursuit is perceptible: "We come from clearly different paths from those undertaken by all the other competitors - analyzes the men's coach, Edoardo Salvoldi, also satisfied with the many points obtained with a view to Olympic qualification - I would have signed for a silver, the gold went to the clearly stronger team". "We're going home with a good second place, in the next events we can aspire to do more", promises Jonathan Milan, while the debutant Magagnotti, who didn't expect to reach the final, is aware of the fact that "there is time to work and strengthen the group for the bigger goals that await us in the future". "It was important to win this final and reconfirm ourselves among the best in the world - echoes the women's coach, Diego Bragato -. Our work looks to Los Angeles: we must continue to grow the group, bringing in fresh forces and recovering important elements." "We gave everything we had - comments Elisa Balsamo -. There is still a lot of work to do, but we are on the right path"