"I don’t think the new generation will last very long" - Alberto Bettiol is worried about the "overly scientific" approach of young riders
CyclingSaturday, 30 March 2024 at 11:09
Alberto Bettiol is an emotive person, someone who likes to do things by heart, rather than dive in the world of numbers and calculations. Based on his recent results and performances he is convinced that he can take on Mathieu van der Poel and anyone else at Sunday's Tour of Flanders, which would be his second triumph in the Belgian Monument.
"I’ve shown that when I’m on form, I have a chance of winning, even in the biggest races, against the biggest riders," Bettiol tells Cyclingnews. "It’s a pretty exclusive sport these days, so it’s pretty impressive just being able to at least take them on."
"I’m the last of the romantic racers," he suggests. "I live for the emotions of life. The young riders are more robotic and scientific in the way they do things. I live for racing, not for training. I love sprinting for signs and going hard on climbs rather than following my training schedule to the letter."
"The young guys seem to have everything so dialled in; they seem so much smarter than my generation. But I’m also worried about them. They’ve perhaps lost the emotive side of racing," he thinks.
"They’re focused on their watts per kilo, their aerodynamics and live on their mobile phones. They’re young but mature too, but without having learned how to do things by experiencing them. It’s all been explained to them, or they studied it all online. But they haven’t lived it. I don’t think the new generation will last very long, one by one they’ll realise that life is passing them by."
"I think what I’ve experienced and learnt over the last ten years is an advantage. I‘ve got to use that wisely while adapting to modern-day cycling. If I can do that, it can make a difference, and it can be a winning edge."
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Touch and go for Bettiol now, almost home but one little cramp could lead to another DNF, although at this stage (and after the cyclocross section) maybe walking on will be enough?
I agree with Bettiol on this!
Bettiol was man of the Race the other day ✌️
The Romantic, racing approach is great until you cramp up at critical times in the race because your refueling and hydration strategy is based on "feel" and not on a scientific approach.
As this has happenned to Bettiol multiple times, I think he should try to embrace science more to maximise his talent...
Never saw a rider with so many DNFs
One of the best articles I’ve seen on cramps:
« What causes cramp when cycling? The theories and fallacies behind the pain«
He has a good point but... With everything so scientific they also recover faster... They enjoying? That's a different story.
The scientific approach is great for fast short-term progress, one thing it is not capable of predicting and isn’t known yet as it’s all too new is how will the rider evolve long-term although you have to ask if many except the rider themself even really care because they’ll become replaceable with the next young rider and after a few burns, salaries will adapt to reflect that (up to now ignored) risk.
Give me a list of riders who were prolific winners at 21/22/23 and still prolific winners at 28/29 in the same domain. MvdP would have been an obvious choice except all his winning was in cyclocross which from a training and endurance pov is completely different to road so it is physiologically supposable he still has reserves (as if he needs).
Valverde; didn’t quite reach domination and wasn’t instantly brilliant so young but did remain at an amazingly high level for ages.
Moser?
Agreed with you on this
Great for the short term. But how about the long term?