The track as a mirror of the anachronism in which Spanish cycling lives
The other day we were able to chat for a while with the road coach Pascual Momparler and Antonio Alix about a season in which Spanish cycling has travelled along the central track of the desert
Even with Enric Mas’s second place in the Vuelta, which we do not take away one iota of value, although the cyclist leaves us cold, The 2021 Spanish cycling campaign has been very bad and as an example, the three major events in which medals were at stake on the national level: the Games, the European Championship and the World Championship.
Last week the European Track Cycling Championship was held, which our friend Alix and Luis Román, one of the people who knows the most about the subject on this side of the Pyrenees, narrated to us.
A Barcelona native named Erik Martorell competed in the Spanish team and managed to break the Spanish record for pursuit, which is 16 laps of the velodrome, or quickly translated, four kilometers.
Martorell improved a record that had been in force since 2004!, no more and no less, 17 years after Sergi Escobar set it on the path to the podium at the Athens Games.
Note that Sergi then took a chance with two “Bradleys”, Wiggins and Mc Gee, two cyclists who at that time, unlike the Illdernian, were already competing in top-level teams.
Erik Martorell has beaten Sergi Escobar’s record, and like the double Olympic medallist, he sees the days go by without making it into a top-level team
That is to say, 17 years later, Spanish cycling has still not evolvedwhat we said other times about the concept, the need to consider cyclists who race more than one modality, who improve in all of them together, who get the best out of one, to apply it to another, all of that is not valued.
Before continuing, let me say that Erik’s 4’14” is measured against the four-minute barrier that American Ashton Lambie broke not long ago.improving Filippo Ganna’s best time by a couple of seconds.
Without wanting to belittle what Erik has done, which is a huge achievement, look at where Spanish cycling is and where the world is in a register that is no small feat, because the individual pursuit is based on the team pursuit, which in turn is the mirror of a country’s work with cycling.
Erik Martorell competes in an elite team, that is to say a non-professional one, and plays the quarterfinals in an increasingly professional environment.
His Spanish record earned him ninth place in the European Pursuit Championship.
A few days later he made his American debut with Sebas Mora, but they were unable to make it into the top ten of a race full of World Tour cyclists.
Looking at the reality of track cycling in Spain, we return to the conversation with Monparler, who spoke of the phobia in Spain of signing cyclists who alternate between velodromes and road cycling.
It’s incredible, but true, At this point, it is still the case that the track continues to be banned in Spanish cycling.Even the coach acknowledged this, which is an aberrant anachronism, given the profusion of pistards and other specialists in road cycling.
The Gran Piemonte was won by an Englishman called Matthew Walls who came from winning silver in the Olympic Madison alongside Ethan Hayter, one of the great sensations of British cycling.
In Tokyo, ahead of both of them were two World Tour riders, Lasse Norman Hansen and Michael Morkov, the Danish duo, and behind them Benjamin Thomas and Donovan Grondin, cyclists from Groupama and Arkea, respectively.
That is to say, Erik Martorell is and will be playing the quarterfinals with cyclists who compete on the best circuits.
This is the reality, and we do not want to look any further, because the growth of prestigious cyclists in other modalities on the road is exponential and Success stories pile up on the table.
Sebas Mora and Albert Torres were signed in extremis by MovistarWe don’t know if they will renew them, but there have already been journalists from the blue camp who jumped: “The signing of the pistards leaves me cold.”
When you see these tics, When you read Sergi Escobar’s threads and what surrounds Spanish cycling has a substantial part of why things are the way they are and could not be any other way…
Imagen: RFEC
2024-08-07 22:04:40
#Olympic #Games #velodrome #moves #Spain
