Rafa Díaz Justo: “To match a year like this one is going to be really difficult if not impossible”
The year 2022 has already entered the month of December and faces its last weeks of existence. It will soon be history, but for the trajectory of the U23 structure of the Fundación Contador it will always be approached as a special and beautiful story because of the great quality of the human group that was part of the project and the results that came during the campaign. In short, it was an unforgettable year.
Nineteen victories (including the overall for squads in the Copa de España in the U23 category), another fifteen podiums, many more top-10 positions and a beautiful epilogue: five riders who reached the professional category, six if we take into account Manuel Oioli under the umbrella of a development. I could not finish this year without talking to Rafa Díaz Justo (1972), the U23 team manager in the midst of preparations for the first pre-season training camp, about such a beautiful campaign.
A great 2022 season, Rafa, the best season of the U23 structure since its creation?
Without a doubt, yes, to match a year like this is going to be very difficult, if not impossible. It has been a very nice year where a series of unbeatable circumstances have come together. A special cocktail with a very good team of riders, with signings in whom we had absolute confidence and we weren’t wrong, with a highly motivated and efficient team of coaches and assistants, with unbeatable material resources and with the spark of luck that is always needed and which is best reflected in the almost total absence of accidents and serious mishaps, although crashes and injuries always happen. But beyond this, personally it has been a very, very nice 2022. Tough, but very nice.
Four of the riders will make the jump to the professional ranks with the EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team in 2023.
Both Fernando Tercero and Davide Piganzoli are two very good riders, with much future, somehow they have been the standard-bearers of the project this year, we started with this idea always from a prism of which they competed as much as possible at international level. Competing abroad is very tough and each country and each race has its own particular history. Javi Serrano and Andrea Pietrobon have also had a good season. Javi gave us two really interesting months. Andrea started very well, although personally he left me a bit cold from the point of view that he was an elite cyclist and if we take into account the whole course, this has not been a differential factor or to stand out from his teammates.
Marcel Camprubí makes the leap, but in another structure…
He has a very high level and he has shown it in the great end of the season he has done. We wish him all the best and we regret not having been able to have him for another year to work with him more abroad, but this sport is like that and his season, like that of other teammates too, has logically attracted attention. He had an injury in the Gran Premio Primavera de Ontur from which he recovered well, although it upset the planning a bit. We knew that if we recovered him soon he could make it to the Giro U23. He was there, it’s true that he was a little bit just, but in the Corsa Rosa he laid the foundations of his summer. There he took off from a fitness point of view. Riders of this quality who come with a lower level of load than their rivals end up having an impressive end to the season.
Fran Muñoz is one of the few, possibly the only one, Copa de España winner who has not made the jump to the professional ranks the following season.
It is not usual, but in his case I think it is a good thing that he remains in the category to round off his training and make a much better jump if the opportunity arises. We have always spoken very clearly with Fran, regardless of whether or not his move to the professional ranks was feasible. Fran has to be calm. For 2023, where he is one of the captains of the squad, we want him to follow the same line as Fernando or Davide this year, that is to say, a very international calendar, without focusing 100% on the Spanish Cup. I think it’s something that gives you a plus when it comes to making the leap to professionalism. This season Fran has had two very good peaks of form, although he expected more in the second one. The Cup is very concentrated in the calendar, there are four months of full form, and this is something that weighs you down towards the end. It’s not easy, it’s not within the reach of many. If you look at the history of cup winners, the winners “disappear” in August and September.
It’s a surprising decision, ‘unnatural’ for what these times are…
In the last few years in this sport you can see how very young riders with very good physical conditions are coming up to the professional level. But in cycling these are as important as knowing how to handle yourself in every situation, and in complex situations in different environments. Every race in every country has its own story. And the physical aspect is important, but the mental aspect is also important. Personally, I think that taking the leap without this knowledge is not good and, in this sense, the current maelstrom is a bit counterproductive. Let’s see in three or four years’ time how it all turns out, then we’ll be able to have a more realistic picture of the situation in cycling.
Andrea Montoli and Arnau Gilabert become the two veterans of the squad in this team format that bets for short squads with young riders…
Andrea is a very nice guy who has made a lot of progress in 2022, making his debut in the category with his victory in Valencia after a day when he kept telling me that he was exhausted and in which he discovered that this sport is very universal: you can be exhausted, but your neighbour will be too. I am looking forward to seeing him in 2023. And also Arnau, a kid who has a lot of quality and who is going to focus exclusively on cycling next season. Until now he has combined it with work, as Juan Pedro López and David Martín did in their day, but there comes a time when it’s important to make the bet and focus completely.
What do you expect from the other riders who follow with you?
I would like Antonio González to take another step forward. This 2022 has been very ungrateful for him in terms of individual performances, because in the team we’ve been working with this format of giving more weight to the veterans. Carlos Barredo and I are very clear about it, it is a format that has worked very well for us beyond the fact that a very, very good youngster can always come along or that the circumstances of the races can go in another direction. But in the end this is part of the training. The older ones get more coverage and the younger ones get more work. In that work you see a lot of interesting things, even if it is very thankless. Pablo Uría and Ramón Fernández are facing a very important year, they are in their last year in the category and they have to be at their best from minute one, it’s something they are very clear about. Pablo didn’t have a good season this year because of an injury that affected him for a large part of the season, but he is now recovered. And Ramón, who had a very good performance in Castellón, was hampered for the rest of the season by his crash in the Vuelta a Extremadura. And then I’ve seen details that I’ve loved from Sebastiano Minoia and Edoardo Alleva. Edo in the last stage of the Volta a Galicia showed that he has an impressive engine. And Minoia, who found himself doing Aosta because of a last-minute withdrawal, was overcoming every day from less to more and overtaking a lot of people. I also expect Gabriele Raccagni to have a very good year, but I think that in this 2022 he has been a bit more and less, because he has been too careful with a view to climbing better and a sprinter always has to be very clear about the relationship between weight and power and not be obsessed with climbing more. A sprinter will never be a pure climber and vice versa.
Beyond the team’s journey, what is your assessment of this first season of more cohesive work with a double presence in both Spain and Italy?
Organisationally, this has been a difficult year, complex from start to finish and at the same time, in the end, easier than we thought. It would have been impossible to face it without the means at our disposal thanks to the work of Fran Contador at the head of the structures and the extreme involvement of all the people. In the end we are talking about two structures, doubling the resources in Spain and Italy, doubling many weekends of competitions… Once the project got going and the dynamic was established, everything went very well, apart from the odd thing like flight delays or last minute sick leave. The communication between directors, trainers, staff and riders has been very good and respectful. For 2023 we have a lot in place, but there will also be some changes.
Let’s talk about the new faces for next season. Raúl López from Aragón is one of the two riders who come from Caja Rural.
I like him a lot, he has a very interesting profile. Within the team format that Caja Rural has, with many cyclists in the squad, it is possible that a rider could be left by the wayside. Raúl has worked hard and well, but from an emotional point of view he is a rider who could fall by the wayside. Alejandro Franco, for example, exemplifies what I mean. I’m not saying that Raúl is like Alejandro, they are different cyclists, but it’s a change that he can bring. Raúl is very happy and excited, we are planning his season. Then the competition will do the talking, of course.
Haimar Etxeberria is the other ‘box’ and it may have been a surprising signing for many.
Possibly because he is one of their most famous youngsters. Haimar is a young cyclist, with a lot of ambition and a lot of hunger. The truth is that this possibility was something that came up at the end of the season, we made him a very sincere proposal and he was clear about it, he wanted to come, he already knew us from his participation in a selection camp for the junior team. My way of signing a rider is very simple and direct, offering a reality and not promising pipe dreams: we offer him a calendar with a lot of content, we have the best peloton material, our trips are very well thought out, we have training camps, we have a team of trainers and a group of directors and assistants with a lot of experience. These are concrete things. The rest is always going to be in the cyclist’s hands. Personally, I see Haimar very excited and I have to confess that I have never managed a kid with such a strong mental strength as he has shown so far.
The Bessega brothers, Gabriele and Tommaso, are two other surprising signings.
Both are very good time trialists and therefore good sprinters. They could be two important profiles for Raccagni or even Haimar, who is also a very fast cyclist. And it will be very interesting to see their evolution.
Álex García is the only rider of the U19 team who faces promotion to the U23 structure in 2023…
It is true that we have been a bit lame in this aspect. We would also have liked to have Nil Aguilera, but he received a proposal that seduced him more. Of course it’s a respectable decision, but personally I don’t think it was the best option for him. We would have liked to have him. Álex was the other name that we knew we wanted to bring up. He arrives without pressure, with the easiest working format for cyclists who change category. Let him learn and work. Often the performance without a specific responsibility gives you a better performance. And the truth is that Álex has very interesting numbers and I am sure that we are looking at a very good climber.
And finally Luca Bagnara completes the team in 2023…
He’s probably the big surprise of the project: he’s a pure, pure climber. In international races, with people like Lenny Martinez and company among the participants, he has made the top five. And that’s while competing in a very small team. He’s a second year rider, very humble and at the same time a hill eating machine.
