Professionalization, technology and recruitment: this is how cycling makes its young stars

• Cycling Evenepoel destroys the Vuelta in Les Praeres, where Ayuso and Rodríguez light the flame of Spanish cycling

At just 20 years and eight months old,

became in

the youngest leader in the history of the

.

"Logical", you will think, because the Spanish cyclist finished his career with

and

.

How he was not going to be good from a young age.

But nevertheless, the reality of

was that his first victory in the general classification of a grand tour came six years later, at the

French round and after several seasons of doubts about his abilities. .

he was

when he dressed in gold in Paris, a figure in which one became of legal age in a cycling that, 30 years later, no longer exists.

That sport that differentiated juniors and professionals, that divided by age and not by talent and that forgot the technology in training is dead.

won his first Tour at the

at 22, the same age at which

can win his first Vuelta with

(19) and

(21) as great rivals alongside

.

Is everyone more talented than Indurain or were they too calm with the Navarrese?

«The young stars of now have privileged genetics, but they have worked very well in juniors.

Now

.

If

is able to play with the best tennis players in the world, are you going to tell him not to hit the ball so hard? ”, Reflects in EL MUNDO

, former Olympic champion and director of the

, one of the best training teams in

.

To find an explanation for these young champions, we must go to the base, to the professionalization of training, to the use of technology in measuring the abilities of adolescent cyclists and to the greater capacity of the teams to attract.

Nobody escapes, not even a fishmonger like the Dane

, who became the winner of the Tour de France in a couple of years.

Nor did

, a

who began to

during the pandemic , signed up for a

and now has two stages in this Vuelta.

All with the

, the tool that measures the watts/kilo that a cyclist is capable of achieving at the pedals, as the basis of training.

«Jay Vine is the perfect example.

In the two stages that he won, he kept looking at the potentiometer on his handlebars, seeing the watts that he was moving.

The cyclist knows himself so well that he knows that he can go to those watts.

But do not forget that they are bodies, not machines.

It is a double-edged sword because you have to know how to compete, not just move watts.

The potentiometer does not speak”, adds Sánchez.

Cycling has been the latest

of the child prodigies of world sport.

The natural evolution of the human being.

Younger, faster every year.

«Cycling has ended up adapting to other sports.

It was the sport in which the elite was later reached.

In none was expected at 26 ",

, former cyclist and current sports director

, tells this newspaper .

«Human evolution is getting better and better,

... If we add that to cycling, to the fact that it is understood earlier and that from cadets they have professional training, they reach the elite much earlier and without complex," he adds.

Watts, pulse and recovery

But how do you know if a teenager can win a future Vuelta a España?

«

you did hours and hours, you measured the time in the ports and you didn't even have files.

They told you 'go to this pulse' and that's it.

Now

.

The capacity of watts/kilo that you are capable of developing or the recovery capacity, that

and

because if your pulse is low, you accumulate fatigue.

There you see who can withstand the competition and who is saturated.

If he gets up with a high pulse and high blood pressure, he can hold on”, describes Hernández, who defines cycling as “

and who recovers better».

«That's where the

comes in , which is the time you are able to withstand the maximum effort and that is achieved with the

.

Lactate is a toxin that is generated by muscle, so the runner who is able to assimilate more lactate wins races », he adds.

Obviously, Miguel Induráin did not have all this, who at the age of 20 dressed in red in the Vuelta: "Before they put you there and until you burst," jokes Hernández.

And each figure that improves the average of his age is paid at the price of gold in a market that is "a jungle."

«There are World Tour teams that already offer

.

We cannot enter that war,” admits Hernández.

"We are going to see many broken toys"

“Before it was a race screening,

”, summarizes the physical trainer Javier García, who does not dare to predict the durability of these young stars either: “If they are controlled and they are not squeezed, they do not have to be short races .

, it is the evolution of the species.

The issue is psychological.

Vingegaard

, winner of the last Tour, has had to disappear for a few weeks due to the pressure of victory.

“We are going to see many broken toys and very short sports careers”, confesses Samuel Sánchez, who does not believe that in the future there will be many like

, who at 40 are still running with professionals: “

and you begin to value the economic issue more.

There is also a risk on a mental level, to see if they are prepared to assimilate all this, success, money... The environment is very important, more in training than in the elite».

Belgium is now the cradle of the

.

A giant investment, like in France or England, and a quarry that is the envy of Spanish cycling.

«

have had very good infrastructures in juniors.

Belgium or France are the countries that are investing the most in training", analyzes Sánchez, who speaks of the "crossing through the desert" that awaits our cycling if the base does not begin to be supported more.

«

, and they said they were there because at 22 there are no longer any cyclists, they have all been stolen, so they catch them earlier.

In Spain we are behind, we, together with the Contador Foundation, invest money and time to have structures similar to those of Europe, but it costs.

We need support or the journey through the desert will be great.

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