Marta Bastianelli

So anyway it was about doing three hours of car, long trips.

My father was a pullman driver, so after his six, seven hours of driving, he got back to driving.

So it meant a great sacrifice for them too.

But I brought it to an end with success, so I was lucky.

They were the first fans.

Yes, exactly.

I had a team that was a male team, because there were no female teams, and that was always close to me, even to do those 30 kilometers before the race, the day before the race, they came behind me with the car.

I trained with men in my country.

We had a sports director always present in every training session, even to do 20 kilometers.

No, I was lucky because today I realize what it means, especially with the times that run, to have a person by your side who gives you good advice, who tells you what you must and must not do, that there is when even your parents are not there.

We say that the pandemic has marked a very important period, especially for many cyclists who are not used to staying at home for all that time, to manage family situations for all that time.

Because we cyclists are born a bit like gypsies, right?

With the suitcase always ready behind the door.

It's more the moment that we are not at home than what we are, so we don't live those full situations.

And in my opinion it was a period, a bit for everyone, I'm not talking only about cycling, but a bit in general, very demanding.

It kept us on the fact that now we have taken it to laugh, but also these communities that we made.

to train a little in the company, but in short, for a professional cyclist who then has commitments and above all responsibilities, as I could have as a leader of a team, I never knew if what I was doing was right or wrong, if I was training correctly or not, so it has always been a bit of a search for something that, however, did not arrive until we turned on the television, there was not Conte who said his daily verdict.

When I hear him talk, I always go back to those moments.

Then, however, there was also, let's say, in the misfortune, the fortune that, as we said, many things have changed even better because a few teams of satellites were born, right?

To the big team, to the big team, so the UCI has introduced this rule that many male teams had to have the female or a male team of the second tier.