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An interview with Paola Pezzo, November 3, 2003
Mission to Athens
By Tim Maloney, European Editor
Paola Pezzo
Born: January 1, 1969 Results2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 |
After winning two consecutive Olympic gold medals in Women's Cross Country Mountain biking in 1996 and 2000, 34-year-old Italian Paola Pezzo really has nothing left to prove in her sport, but after three years away from top-level competition, Pezzo has decided to make her comeback with the Team Rosola/Gary Fisher cycling team to aim for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Like her Italian compatriots in cross-country skiing Manuela Di Centa and Stefania Belmondo have demonstrated over their careers, women's endurance athletes only get better with age.
Still sponsored by Gary Fisher Mountain Bikes, Paola Pezzo has been riding in grand fondo and marathon events all over Europe the last two years and last December, she and her long-time companion and coach Paolo Rosola had a child, Kevin. Paola started her official training for Athens on Monday, 3 November and Cyclingnews sat down with the top women's cross-country mountain biker ever at her home in the hills above Lago di Garda, Italy, for an exclusive interview.
Cyclingnews: So today was your first day of official training for Athens 2004?
Paola Pezzo: Yes, I feel ready for it! It is very important to be certain, mentally, that this is something you want to do and I feel like going for it. I am a person who never gives up and I know that when I put my mind towards an objective I can achieve it. Then I know the right way forward since I have done it before. My winter preparation is very important to get ready for more specific things next year.
CN: Your last race was Sydney…over three years ago. How has Paola Pezzo changed since then?
PP: Well a lot of things have changed in my life since Sydney. I really wanted to stop then; to hang my bike on the peg and just think about living my life… something I could never really concentrate on before. I wanted a house; that was always a dream for me…to find a house, fix it up. Before Sydney, I could never do that because I was always training and traveling. So after Sydney, (Rosola and I) got a house and fixed it up.
My other dream for a long time was to be a mom and when we had Kevin last year, that was completely great. So yeah, a lot of things have changed for me. For the last year, I wanted to spend most of my time taking care of Kevin. I didn't feel like just leave him and start training again! But now he's almost a year old and can get along pretty well… and I can focus more on my training. For now, I should be able to train once a day and I will be happy to know Kevin will be there when I get back home. Things have changed since Sydney, but they have gotten better.
CN: I understand that you were hoping to have a go at the first World Marathon Championship in Lugano this past September.
PP: I was riding a lot of grand fondos, but with Kevin to take care of, it was hard to get into my best shape. Up to the end of June, I was getting out for two and a half or three hours a day, and then when it got so hot this summer, it was really difficult to get out and train in the afternoon when Kevin was napping. It was really draining me to ride in that heat. I had no strength at all! Plus I had seen the course for the World Marathon Championship and it was really hard. If it had been a three hour race, I probably would have tried it, but since the World's Marathon turned out to be four and a half hours it was too much for the training I was doing. This year, I did 15 grand fondos to get ready for the World's and I was OK to do those.
CN: Rosola told me you felt pretty good though, and thought you might have been more competitive in the Cross Country World's.
PP: Well when I saw the course at Lugano, how technical it was, it looked like a good course for me. But I would have had to prepare like I did in the past to do well there. For grand fondos, you do not need to do any specific training so it is not hard.
CN: Speaking of specific training, I remember the story of your training for Atlanta in 1996, when your coach Rosola made a special training course for you in the woods near your house.
PP: (Laughs) Yeah, that is the story. Prior to Atlanta, I was training on much tougher courses with lots of hard climbing. But since we knew that the Atlanta race was fast with a lot of changes of rhythm and I wasn't used to this kind of course. So we developed a course that was like Atlanta and I trained a lot on it… a lot! It was not technical but we also knew it would be hot and humid in Atlanta in August so I trained in the hottest part of the day.
CN: So are you ready to take on a really tough schedule of specific training to get ready for Athens?
PP: That is a good question. After Sydney, I was really tired. The training was really hard and long and since the Olympics were late in the season, in September, at the end I was exhausted. Now, after almost 3 years away from this type of program, I am motivated now but I understand very well that it will be really hard to come back. Like I said before, it's very important to be ready mentally for this.
CN: How did the Italian Cycling Federation convince you to come back?
PP: There is kind of a crisis in women's mountain biking in Italy. At the World's this year in Lugano, there were only two Italian women racers, and even on a technical level, none of them were in the race. There are some good juniors, but next year with the Olympics, the federation cannot just put these inexperienced riders in there. So for a while, Alfonso Morelli (Italian Cycling Federation MTB coach) has been asking me if I could come back for Athens. But I wasn't convinced that much. Then when I saw the World's in Lugano, I saw that the level of women's mountain biking was about the same and that the competition was pretty much the same as before so I started to think that maybe it was possible [to come back]. Then Giancarlo Ceruti, the president of the Italian Cycling Federation called me and we discussed this. He was really positive and so I developed a program with Morelli and things worked out so far.
CN: Which rider will be your main competition in Athens?
PP: From what I saw of the World Cup races and the World's this year, Marga Fullana always goes well on less technical courses. At the World's, Fullana would drop everyone on the climbs, but then (Alison) Sydor would catch her on the technical sections. So Sydor is always strong, and even though (Gunn-Rita) Dahle didn't have a good day at the World's this year, she had a great season this year and she's is always dangerous. So I'd say that Dahle, Fullana, Sydor and (World Champion) Spitz are going to be tough. Then there are some good young riders from Russia and Poland to watch out for. I've never raced with them either…
CN: Have you seen the Athens cross country MTB course?
PP: Not personally, but I heard from Morelli that he has filmed the course, but I also heard that the existing course has been rejected because it is not technical enough. I don't know what they can change at this point but that's what I understand. I prefer a more technical course anyway.
CN: So your quest for another Olympic medal has started once again. What will you start with in your training?
PP: After some riding, I will do a lot of cross-country skiing. That is always how I have prepared in November and December. Running and cross-country skiing, then I will start specific bike training after the New Year.
At that point, 11-month-old toddler Kevin came along after his nap and concluded Paola's interview with Cyclingnews. We will undoubtedly catch up with her again along her road to Athens.
