The Trek-Segafredo cyclists put their trust in Mapei Sport

The Spaniard Alberto Contador, one of the six cyclists to have won the Triple Crown, Dutchman Bauke Mollema, who has his sights firmly on the 100th Giro d’Italia this year, the Italian champion Giacomo Nizzolo and the German John Degenkolb, who completed the Milan Sanremo – Paris Roubaix double in 2015, will be trained, together with their team-mates, for the preparations and periodical functional assessments in the laboratory, by highly qualified staff at the Olgiate Olona (Varese) centre.

Mapei Sport’s employees, made up of researchers, doctors, sporting coaches and qualified support staff, led by the Managing Director and doctor Claudio Pecci, will also play a key role in developing a nurturing environment for the professional team that is taking shape under the watchful eye of Ivan Basso.

Andrea Morelli, Head of Cycling and the Movement Analysis Laboratory, tells us more about the collaboration: «For us, it was a pleasure to renew this partnership. I have had a great relationship with Luca Guercilena, Team Manager for US training, both as a friend and professionally, since we met during lessons at the I.S.E.F. College of Physical Education, which became stronger when we found ourselves working together after Aldo Sassi took him on a few years after the Centre was opened. We share the same values, which both companies that we work for are also based on. The collaboration will involve carrying out functional assessments such as the VO2 max test or the lactate threshold test in Mapei Sport’s high-performance laboratory but our coaches and I will also be present during training camps or courses to support the athletes and the team’s staff. The experience we’ve had in the past, first with the great Mapei team and then in supporting top figures like Cadel Evans with BMC and Ivan Basso in Liquigas, as well as the ongoing desire to grow by updating and applying scientific research, are the incentives, I believe, that encouraged Trek-Segafredo to begin this partnership and to continue it into 2017. The previous one was, among other things, the year in which “our” former athlete – Fabian Cancellara – concluded his glorious career. We wanted to accompany Spartacus through to the end, supporting him as best we could so that he could reach the end of the journey that he started with Mapei on a high note».

In addition: «The new “youth project” is really exciting for us. An athlete that I know well and that I trained, Ivan Basso, is managing it and will be the point of contact between the first team and the juniores and under-23 teams for Trek-Segafredo to scout new talent, both Italian and foreign; a bit like the youth team that patron Squinzi and Prof. Sassi wanted so much back in the days of the Mapei team. Ruben Guerreiro, the Portuguese athlete newly signed to Trek-Segafredo, and Jacopo Mosca, former professional with another team but who wore the black and white jersey as a stagiaire, are two of the athletes who, last season, were part of the collaboration with Mapei Sport. We have a lot of faith in this project and, personally, I hope it will lead to discovering new talent, perhaps Italians, for the future of our movement. Mapei Sport wishes the entire Trek-Segafredo team a year full of success and satisfaction. With athletes like Contador and Mollema in the grand tours and Degenkolb, Nizzolo and Fabio Felline, winner of yesterday’s Trofeo Laigueglia, in the Monuments and the shorter stage races, they can certainly aim for top results».