The first part of the season for Filippo Fiorelli ended with the Italian championship in Tuscany and that attack on the Monte Morello climb to close the gap on the leading group. Now the Sicilian has returned home to rest and recharge his batteries ahead of the second half of the season. A 2024 that saw him mutate, change objectives and become an attacking runner.
«Now I’m at home – he says – in Palermo to enjoy four days of total detachment, maybe I’ll go to the beach since it’s practically outside the door. The weather so far hasn’t been great, I hope it improves before Thursday, the day I return to training. I will resume with the bike and gym as I did at the beginning of the year. The races on which I have put the red circle will be at the beginning of August, we start with the Arctic Race of Norway. I had already raced in those parts, in 2021 when I withdrew from the Giro d’Italia, but it was another race: the Tour of Norway.”
A new Fiorelli
He told us this winter at the Vf Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè retreat how the goal was to change his skin. In the following weeks the team trainer, Andrea Giorgi confirmed everything to us by explaining the change of pace in training.
«I noticed the changes made throughout the first part of the season – explains Fiorelli – even if in the first races the results were not like those of previous years. But then I went to the Giro with different ambitions, to attack from afar. If you look at the results you can’t see the change, but in terms of numbers the season is significantly better than previous years. Now I move on significantly more challenging routes, with climbs that would have hurt me last year. These are racing situations in which I get ahead of the best and for this reason sometimes you need a bit more luck, but the season went well. I had a small hiccup in the first few months, in which I suffered from sinusitis, but we understood the problem and I will have surgery at the end of the year. We noticed that I have a slightly deviated nasal septum and this causes inflammation of the respiratory tract.”
Do you fly? No thank you
Fiorelli no longer races in group sprints, now we see it in action in challenging stages, like that of Prati di Tivo at the Giro d’Abruzzo. Or he attacks from afar, looking for an escape, as happened at the Giro d’Italia in the first three stages.
«I no longer wait for the sprints – he says – I have gone back to following my natural characteristics. NoI have never been a sprinter, but I was waiting for the sprints because we didn’t have a pure sprinter in the team. I remain a runner with a good quick start, but who knows how to go fast on mixed routes. At the last Giro d’Italia we changed tone, in the first three stages I entered into as many breakaways because there was the opportunity to take the cyclamen jersey. In the end I succeeded and it was more rewarding than waiting for a sprint to finish eighth. It’s true that in 2023 in Rome I finished third, but it happens once in a while and I didn’t win anyway. We might as well get ahead of ourselves and try to fool the best.”
New method
The credit for these improvements also goes to Andrea Giorgi, the team trainer who helped Fiorelli in his transformation.
«I changed my working method, not training – he says – because what I do on the bike doesn’t change. But now I focus on 12 minute climbs, which allows me to stay with the best even on really challenging routes. At the Italian championship on Sunday I came ninth, remaining with the bestIn fact, in the final climb I even attacked to close the gap on the leaders. I was there at 20 seconds, the difference was small, so I think the path taken is the right one. It’s only the first year that I’ve worked in this way, there is still room for improvement, to be able to keep more minutes uphill and with greater intensity. What I miss now is the full result, in this regard the second part of the season is full of opportunities. The right moment will come, I will have to seize it.”
