The life of a couple in which both are cyclists is well told by the dog of Elia Viviani and Elena Cecchini. Presented by her Olympic champion to her partner at Christmas 2015, it makes big parties for both of them when they return home, but has her father as a reference because he is always with him. “We call him shadow dog because he never leaves him” explains Elena Cecchini, world gold medal in the team time trial in 2018, ready for the start of the Giro Women 2022 June 30 in Sardinia.
Elia Viviani, bronze in Tokyo on the track and gold in Rio 2016, world medals on the bulletin board, stages in Giro, Tour and Vuelta, runs instead on Sunday 26 June the Italian championship. The first question comes automatically. Does the dog see you little and do you cross paths? «She goes to periods», explains Viviani, «There are moments in which she exchanges: I come back and she leaves or vice versa. However, the seasons are usually combined. Grand tours are the longest moment of distance. But we are usually no more than three weeks apart. We chase each other a lot, but we can’t complain ». Elena Cecchini adds: “In 10 years together, the lockdown, seven weeks, is the period in which we have been closest to each other for the longest time.”
Don’t you train together?
EV: “When we are always at home. Maybe we have different plans. We leave together and then we split up if one has to do an hour longer ».
How was the love for cycling born?
EC: «In my family everyone practiced it even if 24 years ago it was not a widespread sport for women. As a child I did swimming and artistic gymnastics and then the passion for cycling took me ».
EV: “I, on the other hand, was the first of my family. Now we have a bike shop that my parents manage in Verona together with my middle brother, the youngest runs among the professionals. At 8, a school friend of mine was cycling, the only one who did a sport other than football. It was 1997. Since 1998 I have been involved in football and cycling, before finally choosing the bicycle at the age of 12-13 ».
Is being a cyclist traveling the world?
EC: «We travel, but we don’t see anything. In the days before the race there is preparation and rest and then we cyclists have a very limited walking autonomy. We get tired immediately. The day as a tourist. We will have gone to Brussels 100 times and we have never seen it ».
EV: «You know the people, not the places except for long trips, for example when we go to Australia or when we went to Rio to try the Olympic course».
The women’s Giro d’Italia pink jersey with the UN Refugee Agency logo
The holidays?
EV: «Always warm, for us it’s winter. In the mountains only in the two years of the pandemic. On the first 15 of November we escape to the heat: twice to Mexico, the Maldives, Dubai, Brazil. One year we finished the previous season and went to Lampedusa at the end of September ».
Do you have or did you have an idol among cyclists?
EV: «I started in 1998 when Pantani won the Giro and Tour. There was only his name. We had Bianchi bicycles like his ».
EC: «Marta Bastianelli who became world champion at 19 and still runs. Lizzie Deignan who won the Paris Roubaix last year (first female edition ed). Both have a life beyond the bicycle (Deignan will be a mother for the second time in September and Marta Bastianelli is also a mother ed) ».
Is it possible for a woman to have a life beyond the bicycle?
EC: «Until a few years ago there was no economic recognition of wages and bonuses, women also had to work and create a family life for themselves was very difficult. Now professionalism has taken over and you have to give everything for the bike, but in a group there are many examples of emancipation, girls who have children and return. Before you had to quit to have a family. We are no longer in trouble, but we need a lot of support at home ».
What steps forward has women’s cycling made?
EC: «Until a few years ago I was often the only woman on a bike when I went out in Friuli, now there is no group that does not have a female presence. What surprises me is all the equipment and preparation, I see a lot of organization and a lot of thought. We must not be satisfied with the progress made, but above all the wage difference is still as much in football as in other sports. Covid has paradoxically helped some individual sports, many have approached the bicycle ».
And the visibility?
EC: «Fundamental. We have seen it with women’s football and we run with more determination when we know there is live coverage. We did not have until recently what men take for granted. (This year the organization has decided to increase the overall prize money of the Giro Donne 2022 to 250,000 euros, of which 50,000 euros for the winner ed) ».
EV: «In Barcelona there were 90,000 spectators for women, the economy is changing. In small steps you have to get there “.
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How’s cycling doing now?
EV: «It has great phenomena to which nature has given something more: Van Aert, Van Der Poel. Teams must strengthen to beat these phenomena. Cycling discovers talents first and teams take them to raise them. In the past, however, before you had to prove your worth to be taken by a great team. Discover those who have something more, but you risk losing many young people ».
Programs?
EV: «I want to wear the Italian champion shirt again and then there is a European that suits my characteristics».
EC: «Women’s Giro d’Italia from 30 June to 10 July, is the longest race on the calendar that has always believed in women. This year we also have the Tour de France for the first time. After years of battles they have listened to us ».
How does Elia Viviani manage the dual activity on the track and on the road?
EV: “It has always been part of my normality. I don’t need adaptation. Over the years I have given priority to one thing or another, in the Olympic year more and more track. The track is also good for the road and for the sprints ».
Is there another Olympic year?
EV: «Paris 2024 is an important appointment for me. The Tokyo Olympics have marked me. I came from two years of difficulties on the road. The role of standard-bearer and the second Olympic medal (bronze in the Omnium after the gold in Rio 2016 ed) led me to do a larger project with the Ineos team. In Paris I would like to repeat Rio, but the bronze in Tokyo came in a more heartfelt and strong way, I wasn’t starting as a favorite like five years before ».
Is there a race missing in Elia Viviani’s career?
EV: «The Milan-Sanremo, the only classic monument a sprinter can aspire to».
The marriage?
EV: “October 22 at the end of the season so that everyone who is close to us can be there.”
The carreer?
EV: «Paris 2024 is the reference point. From there I’ll see if I can do another two years ».
EC: «I too have set myself as my last year in Paris, the road race, but when I think about it, I feel a bit sad. I would be ready to leave after a great result. There is also the desire to have a family, I would stop and I would be happy to do so ».
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Elena Cecchini
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Elena Cecchini
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Elia Viviani
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Elia Viviani with the bronze of Tokyo 2020
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Elia Viviani in Rio 2016
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Elia Viviani in Rio 2016
Source: Vanity Fair