GORIZIA – The voice is trembling, the glasses are unable to completely hide the emotion. Carlo Beretta does not know what to say, what to think. The team manager, if we can define it, of this ASD, the Swatt Club, is overwhelmed by a whirlwind of feelings. A gigantic, unexpected thing has just happened. A dream come true: one of his, Filippo Concahas just graduated Italian champion.
At the start from Trieste they had a gazebo and a van. Everyone, even the runners, gave themselves busy to download the bikes, arrange the chairs, prepare. In front of them was the Polti-Kometa bus and the sea behind them. Everything flowed quietly. Perhaps Conca seemed to us the most serious during the preparations. But who would have thought of what would have happened in a handful of hours?
At the end of the race, after this “sports bomb”, we could not fail to talk to Beretta. Understand more, to guess how things will change shortly from here. And also analyze the race, because in fact if yesterday, talking about teams, all They were waiting for the VF Group-Bardiani, the XDS-Astana and the Polti-Kometa, the three more numerous, but the team that ran better and was more active was the Swatt Club.
Carlo, what happened?
I don’t know, believe me. I don’t know what to say, on an emotional level it’s a bomb. We had a lot of support today because there were really many guys from our team, Our amateurs, who came to help us, who were at our corner on the climb, gave water. There was a great motivation.
Clear, this is a very important stage for you …
Yes, but it was not fundamental. The directive was underway: have fun and smile. All this was the result of the hours of work that the boys made by bike and their serenity, Because if you are serene as they are, everything is fine. They had fun all year round. And today (yesterday, editor’s note) they gave everything they had inside.
The question is: a club, not even Continental, who beats the greats … maybe this thing a little says that there is something that is not very good in Italian cycling, right?
That was known for a long time, but it doesn’t depend on us. We do our things and our races, in our little one. Last year we had Hellemose that this year returned to the great cycling with Jayco-Alula and proved to be fine. The speech is great. In the end these guys have all engine, they are strong and must be helped, understood and expected. You no longer have to complain and say that in Italy there is no longer anyone. Generations have changed, but it is not said that you cannot go strong even a few years later. For many of them pedaling is life, it is the most beautiful thing in the world. You simply have to leave them quiet to do what they feel. The only thing I do in the team is this: leave them their space, without pressure. For the rest they are they train.
How do they train?
They are all prepared by Gaffuri and Vergalito. Come on … what happened to Conca is incredible. One like him did not have to stay here. We come from amateurs, nobody gave us a lira and we made a lot of UCI points in those few runs in which we participated. We also got a victory in a 1.2 race with a Danish: Kasper Andersen.
And today (always yesterday, for those who read)? Today it was not a 1.2, and the controversies will chain. We already ask ourselves where we will see this tricolor shirt …
Today it is absurd, a day that will remain in history. I don’t even know next year what we have to do to go on. Conca started the season and had to only do grades. Filippo asked me if he could take a race in Austria and I said to him: “Of course you can do it.” I gave him the opportunity, we knew he could make Italian, but I didn’t know where he was. I hope you find a team: aThe Swatt Club is not needed Conca, it is wasted. My goal was to bring it back where it was before, because that’s where it has to stay.
They could bring it shortly, not being pro ‘is free. In football we would say a zero parameter …
I hope it goes away. And like him Gaffuri and the other guys. This is the goal. I don’t have the structure to support them. I just want to help those who do not help anyone, who are left on foot. Those who have potential, of course. Filippo Conca has an important palmarès. Has frightening numbers (yesterday also fifth, his manager, he had told us of extremely high values on 10 ‘, ed.). This is not his place, I repeat it.
Will this victory change something in your team?
I will go on with my ideas. We decided from one day to the next to make a team team that would make UCI competitions. The sponsors we have, Giant, Cadex, Pirelli, Shimano, Lazer, gave us a hand, But it was more for the world grade. But I didn’t want to abandon the road because it can give an important hand: we saw it with Hellemose. There they really have the opportunity to demonstrate what they are worth.
Carlo, you talked about “making the race with a smile”, but even tactically you made a gauon, perhaps the best of all. At the start there were Lorenzo Ginestra and Francesco Carollo in the escape and in the end the counterattack of Gaffuri and that of Conca …
I didn’t hear what he told him Giorgio Brambilla, The diesse (former runner and he also young, is a 1988 class, ed), in the flagship. Surely something will have told him, but The best tactics come to you when you are at 200 beats per minute: a nod of understanding with your partner who, if like you he believes in the same idea, understands you and everything becomes easier.
How is the Swatt Club organized?
We are very few people. Even today (yesterday, editor’s note), between feed zone and logistical support, they were all friendly people, people of the club, People who work from Monday to Friday and give us a hand on weekends. We are a group of amateurs, of friends, who lives for this passion. And when these people come, 180 percent gives and maybe everything is easier.
How much is your budget?
I think we will reach 100,000 euros, if we pass it, we do it a little. We have 16 runners (7 foreigners, ed), we then made 23 days of the race in all, not many. The sponsors help us to cover all these expenses. We sell the clothing on our e-commerce site, we sell many white bodies like those you have seen in the race. Fortunately, we sell many and everything we collect is poured on the team. I don’t know how sustainable it will be, but at least for this year everything could have done we did it.
You are the manager of the year, in short. Davide beating Goliath …
No no… If a manager saw our bank account and our entrances would tell us: “You are not normal”. Enter 10 and leave 10. But we want to do this for now, because we live for this passion.
What does it pass by now?
I don’t even know what to think, that is It is madness. I just want to wait all my fans who were on the way and be with them. The only thing that will remain will be emotions and having waited for this day since November.
