Alejandro Ropero, the confinement, the enjoyment of family and the desire to ride
Cycling, its history, is lavish with unforgettable moments. Moments, sometimes more fleeting, sometimes less, that remain engraved in some way for posterity. Many times they are associated to victories or offensives that remain engraved in the retina, given the support of the media projection; in other times they are racing situations that, although they may go unnoticed by many fans, they fit in the spirit of their protagonists.
A moment that will never be forgotten by Alejandro Ropero from Granada goes back two months, to Saturday 1st February 2020. In the third trophy of the Challenge of Mallorca, the Trophy Pollença-Port d’Andratx, and after a great group performance of the Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team in the management of the race, the Andalusian rider began the demanding final climb rolling in the group of the illustrious. Quite a rush for a neoprofessional immortalized for posterity by Ciclismo González.
“From the beginning of the season I do stay with that moment, yes, seeing myself there with some of the best riders in the world. It was a very special day for all of us, we did a great job. In spite of the fact that in the Vuelta a la Comunitat Valenciana I could not finish after a fall, in general I would make a very positive balance of the beginning of the season. But honestly I also expected a little more. Maybe without that mishap it would have been like that. I felt good physically at the beginning of the season but I don’t think that I have been able to show my best in this last year as u23 rider, first as professional. That’s why I’m looking forward to compete again, and this makes that wait a little bit more difficult”.
The wait. The confinement. A complex situation, unprecedented, which requires patience. “It’s a rather strange situation. In the end, we cyclists are athletes who depend a lot on training sites and each one of us adapts to the area in which we live, the roads we have… I think that, especially from a psychological point of view, the moment we go through is quite hard. It’s a situation we’ve never experienced before. On the part of the team we are doing hard work supervised by both Carlos Barredo and Carlos Cadarso. We haven’t been around that long either and things aren’t going so badly at the moment,” he says.
In recent weeks, a recurring theme has been that of permits or licenses for certain sectors, such as cyclists, in order to continue exercising their activity in the open air. Ropero, on the other hand, is aligned with the specific needs of moments of great importance from the health point of view. He explains: “The measures that have been taken were those necessary to control this situation, it is undeniable. At some point you may think that professional runners should be given a little more freedom, because this is their job, taking measures such as going out alone, not stopping… But it is also risky, it is absolutely understandable all that has been done and why it has been done. Personally I would have taken these confinement measures as well. We are equally exposed, we put ourselves at risk to suffer an accident or other incidence at a time of great burden in hospitals and going out into the street would also be selfish. Right now, with all the emergencies so collapsed, it would be negligent. Being at home is the most responsible thing. There will be time to see what happens with the season”.
The Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team rider also emphasizes the value of living with family and enjoying that time which in most cases is impossible to find given the essentially itinerant nature of this sport. “Now is the time to live just the opposite. In the end we are always away with trips to the races, concentrations, various commitments… We live without spending time at home, without being with the family. And now it’s just the opposite. Sharing time, looking for entertainment between us and being very close. Social networks also allow us to nurture that relationship. You can see that people are more active, it’s not the same as real life, but I still socialize with my people”.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
