In a post a few hours ago Marcello Pesenti announces that he will not take part in the Italian Enduro Championship which will take place next week due to a double metacarpal fracture. But the real news is the outburst that followed this communication. A bitter reflection, but unfortunately real, which paints a way of interpreting the 'Italian style' enduro far from what happens in the rest of the world.
THE POST OF MARCELLO PESENTI
Here is what Marcello writes:
⚠️BREAKING NUUUS⚠️ also this year no Italian enduro championship for me, I broke the fourth and fifth metacarpals and the cock too *, but okay the bones settle down, instead the Italian enduro (it's right to call it that because let's do a discipline) will never settle down (the tests of the Italian championship course have already started a while, when instead they should only be the day before the race) doing the races so it is no longer enduro, enduro is improvisation and confidence in your own abilities and in the bike, knowing the route by heart or trying it more than once changes everything radically, you will know the reaction of the bike to every bend, hump, root or stone and therefore improvisation and confidence are no longer needed.
On the one hand I am sorry not to participate because I was finding feelings that I had not felt for at least 2 years, but on the other hand I am happy not to participate in a discipline that we do only in Italy.
Until we align with the rest of the world, I don't think I'll participate in other enduro races in Italy.
In spite of the regulation, Cello denounces the fact that many riders are already trying the race tracks, a situation partly confirmed by the fact that it seems that some teams have asked the organization to get a preview of the PS.
A practice that damages our enduro
A way of distorting what should be the discipline of improvisation, which in this way becomes something else. But this wanting to evade the rules also raises a broader reflection. Why by doing so iOur circuit excludes itself from the international enduro system; because for those who really want to stand out, international competitions are the ones to aim for and to do so it is necessary to work and run with international rules.
It is a subject as old as this discipline, but which we have evidently not yet been able to solve in Italy, still denoting a lack of competitive maturity and a lack of professionalism on the part of some riders.
Costs soar
MTB is a discipline that requires a considerable budget to be tackled professionally at a competitive level. The vehicle, the consumables, the trips to the races, the trips to find the best training grounds: these are all elements that have a cost. If we add to these also further trips to 'test the tracks', then competing at an Italian level becomes difficult.
The paradoxical thing is that everything is done almost only for glory; because then, as mentioned above, true professionalism is at the EWS, but if you get to that race with the wrong attitude or don't participate at all to invest in local competitions, you run the risk of remaining marginal.
What solution?
The answer would seem easy, but it obviously isn't. In this case we hope that the federation takes the right measures and that the organizers take action to solve this problem. In the medium term, however, it is the attitude and priorities of the athletes that must change. Those who have the ability and desire to emerge take note of this situation and try to focus their commitment on the competitions that really matter, therefore EWS and EWS Qualifiers, starting to travel by going to run those races that can make curriculum and that give the necessary visibility for try to grow.
The Italian system should be reformed, just as the national routes should be aligned with international standards as written HERE; but in the meantime, the advice to be given to young people, and to those teams who believe in a mature development of this discipline, is to look around, not to compromise and continue along the main path of this discipline, because only in this way can true results come.
Is there a need for a change in the Enduro MTB world?
