Filippo Conca Corona today in Belgium his dream: to return to running in professional cycling after a couple of years as an unemployed person, after nobody wanted to make him a contract, after seriously thinking of stopping. A story with a happy ending his who had stopped and now fortunately he starts again: “Now my dream is to run the Giro d’Italia and do it wearing the Italian champion shirt I think it’s an unrepeatable opportunity …”.
Cycling almost always manages to surprise And sometimes he travels that you don’t expect that they become beautiful stories to tell. That of Conca, 26 years old from Lecco, a degree in Economics in his pocket, starts again just over a month ago when he returns to the pages of the newspapers for the sensational victory of the Italian cycling championship from Trieste to Gorizia by beating the escape companions at the Sprint, Alessandro Covi of the UAE Team Emirates and Thomas Pesenti of the Soudal Quick-Step. Two professionals who run with professional teams beaten by him who is instead a “amateur” who runs for a team of “amateurs”, the “almost” Switts Team Team Continental, that is, those considered to be third band, with infinitesimal budgets if related to the World Tour or the Professional: 90 thousand euros against a 40 million for a season, just to understand each other.
Conca and the Swatt Club become a “case” for sports newspapers, for TV, for the web Although in reality the Lombard cycling company, conceived and created by the president Carlo Beretta, is already since it is already seen that practically from nothing, that is, by a successful blog, in less than two years it has become the amateur team with more registered in Italy and perhaps also in Europe: over 1,100. Yes, because the “Swattclub” is not only a sports movement but is a new idea of cycling that breaks the patterns, which explains how with passion, with the intuition, with the unscrupulousness and obstinacy of those who want to travel a new way, you can remove some rust from an oxidized movement on ancient habits.
An 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, who have lost one occasion but believe that there can be another one. To give hope to those who remained without a contract. That is, to athletes like Filippo Conca who climbs us on the Swatctclub train. The victory of the tricolor is the crowning of a dream but dreams, if one believes in it, never end.
And then it is a few days ago the news that the young Italian champion Lecco will run for a professional team, after signing a contract for the next two years with the Australians of the Jayco Alula with which he will debut today in the Franco-Belge 2025 circuit, the Belgian race from Tournai to Mont-de-eclus. «I am really happy to join the Jayco Alula team, I chose this team because I am sure I find the ideal environment to work hard. Before taking my decision, I consulted myself with my colleagues and the staff, and everyone told me that here I would find a family able to support me on a personal and sporting level “