Filippo Conca26 years of Lecco, is the new Italian road cycling champion. End of the news and beginning of a dream, yes, because Filippo Conca runs with the body of the “SwattClub” “almost” continental category team, those considered third band, with infinitesimal budgets if related to the World Tour or the Professional: 90 thousand euros against a 40 of millions for a season, just to understand each other.
The Lecco area won the in -line proof of the professionals from Trieste to Gorizia After 228.9 kilometers, beating the escape companions on the sprint, Alessandro Covi of the UAE Team Emirates and Thomas Pesenti of the Soudal Quick-Step. After the finish line, he broke out in a crying cry, also because perhaps he didn’t even believe it since last last, at the end of the season with the Q.36 Pro Team, he was about to retire from competitive activity to devote himself to an activity in the tourism sector on Lake Como, where he lives.
And here begins this story of cycling that is halfway between utopia and revolution. Yes, because the “swatclub” is not just a sports movement born seven years ago and then also became a cycling team. It is a new idea of cycling that breaks the schemes, which explains how with passion, with intuition, with the unscrupulousness and obstinacy of those who want to travel a new path, you can remove some rust from an oxidized movement on ancient habits. A “obstinate and contrary” idea that was born to give a second chance To those who remained out of the tour, to those who want to try but at 24 0 25 years old are already considered old (too old), to those who do not resign themselves to the idea of pedaling without competing, have those who have lost a train but believe that there can be another one to get to the destination.
The Swatt Club is a bit of this “stuff” here. A challenge to the constituted cycling, to a world in which it is difficult to enter, to a communication that looks to you from above, to telekronists who make slaughter, who liquidate you as a group of “fixed”. It is the rib of a sports blog, “Solowattaggio”, which more than ten years ago brings together from an idea by Carlo Beretta a group of fans gradually increasingly numerous. In 2017 he became ASD Swattclub, an amateur team but more a cultural movement: without sponsor on the shirt, a little (a lot of) countercurrent, a group of agonists convinced who love to find themselves but above all compete. The first miracle is that within a few years the members of the Swatctclub become over a thousand, they become the amateur team with more registered in Italy, perhaps also in Europe.
Power of an idea, a utopia and new technologies That from Milan to Palermo unite the passion to the time of a “clic”. A wave of racing and stylish amateurs that are found in a “concept” but also to the granfondo and every now and then, to the events that the “swatt” organizes and become increasingly participated, festive, engaging. But that’s not enough. It is not enough. “We wanted to do something more. We wanted to do something more for young people, give a chance to those who had remained outside the Giro but believed they could play a second chance- he said a few weeks ago Carlo Beretta in the podcast tricycle we wanted to go to run where he counted, among the professionals. Obviously with our few means. Without logistics, without a bus, without a real staff with masseuses who are our members like Giorgio Brambilla. He does it in friendship, without paying salaries but giving our runners the opportunity to be able to play it, to be able to demonstrate that even if for any reason they had not found a contract, they were not at the end of their race, that there was the possibility of a revenge .. “
Last year the swatt enrolled his team team with only two runners: Mattia Gaffuri and the Danish Asbjorn Hellemose. This year, in addition to the new Italian champion Filippo Conca, with the body of the “swatt” they run among others Kasper Andersen who won Turin Biella, Francesco Carollo, Giacomo Garavaglia, Lorenzo Ginestra and Nicolò Pettiti. “However, to be of ours you do not necessarily be registered or buy one of our shirts- says Beretta- who goes by bike in a certain way is Swatt in the spirit … We are convinced that the mentality of those who believe that if one makes cycling and that’s it, all day, every day you can change. You can make cycling but in some cases you can also study, work. You can do cycling as we mean …”. And maybe win an Italian championship. Because as someone said … “We are made of the same substance as dreams and in the space and time of a dream our short life is collected …”