Stefano Giuliani and his Giotti Victoria – Savini Due: “Grit, tenacity, a pinch of healthy unconsciousness and a lot of passion help me to overcome a thousand difficulties”

Personality and charisma, two words that perfectly describe Stefano Giuliani: a successful rider in the 80s where he achieved two splendid stage successes at the Giro d’Italia, once he got off the bike he embarked on the career of Sporting Director by combining tactical intelligence splendid human skills, thanks to which he manages to create excellent relationships with his boys to help them grow and bring out the best of themselves to establish themselves or relaunch careers that seemed to be at an end.

“Stefano, tell us about your Giotti Victoria – Savini Due project where you cover the role of team manager”

After the Nippo project, I left with Giotti Victoria – Savini Due with the idea of ​​creating a professional team but with covid everything is more complicated. I have to thank the sponsors who support us in this adventure that I carry on with a lot of passion and a good dose of recklessness.

Nowadays the gap has widened enormously between the World tour teams and all the others, the budget differences are enormous. It is increasingly difficult to involve sponsors, we Italian teams should be more united and propose something new and interesting: I have already proposed to my colleagues, since there are 3 professionals and 13 continental to organize the races, one for each team and let’s create a championship to fill the periods of the calendar without competitions: it would be a winning idea, for now it has not been realized, but if we all want to take a step forward we have to propose something.

“Today’s cycling has changed a lot compared to when you were racing, how are you?”

I can define myself as an out of the ordinary and out of fashion, we have a romantic and fearless heart, once cycling was a way to redeem ourselves, today these values ​​are disappearing, social networks and the pandemic have changed everything even faster but I think that the essence of cycling will never change.Our team is run like a family, with Tebaldi and Di Francesco we use the carrot and stick tactic, we try to raise the boys or revive the careers of unspoken talents without putting pressure on them but we are demanding. We give them a wonderful opportunity and they know they have to bring out the best in themselves to make the most of it. Then of course it is easier for us to have good sprinters who guarantee good results and greater visibility but a team must be complete and competitive on all terrains.For example, the world has changed, young talents must be sought everywhere and today very young riders but with the right mentality, I can emerge immediately, as in the case of Pogacar and Evenepoel, but each runner makes a story in itself. We fight every day and try to gain centimeter by centimeter to carve out our satisfactions.For the future I am realistic: we team managers are too corporate, we have a thousand tasks to perform and we are too involved in the management of our own team, but we must be more supportive and propose new ideas and common projects to attract new investors and give a better future to the world of cycling.