FlavioZappi’s Blog

Cycling and coaching

Claudio Chiappucci

You can divide  climber in 2 categories, the “scattista” means the one who climb by relaunch himself after every corner and using lighter gear, (normally small and light up to 55/60kg  like Pantani, Fuentes, Lecarreta, Van Impe, Virenque etc),

pantani scatta

and the “progressista” which is the one who climbs without following lighter rider accelerations but using bigger gears and pacing them self on a very steady but effective speed (Ullrich, Indurain, Hinault, Le Mond, Armstrong etc)

indurain

Maillot au pois (King of the mountain) at the Tour the France and second overall twice Chiappucci is considered to be one of the greatest climber.claudio chiappucciTroughout is early junior career he was a very good climber but only later as pro he came out great climber. That mainly to do with the great distances which was more ideal for his biological capacity.

Chiappucci does not enter in above two categories but he has a very unique qualitie when is to do with climbing, he needs two very important situations to excel, hot weather, and very long hard races. Then he will attack and like a diesel engine never stop.

Better known as “El Diablo”, Chiappucci is one of the most famous and highly-regarded cyclists of the Nineties. He was loved for his dogged determination and competitive aggression. The climber from Uboldo, born in ’63, hit the headlines during the Tour de France in 1990 when he managed to get an advantage of 10 minutes on the favourites thanks to a lightening breakaway in the first days of the competition. He wore the yellow jersey until the penultimate stage, a time trial. Lemond, the hot favourite, won the race but Chiappucci still managed to hang on to second place. This wasn’t Chiappucci’s only silver in the Tour as he also came second in ’92, to Miguel Indurain. Chiappucci placed second twice in the Giro d’Italia as well, in ’91 and in ’92. He won the silver medal in the World Championships in Sicily two years later. “El Diablo” has certainly earned our respect.

Even now at 46 he still ride his bike almost every day. Every time I go back to Italy I ride with him and believe me you don’t want to challenge him on a climb. VAI EL DIABLO!io e chiappa 2

May 23, 2009 Posted by | Climbing | 1 Comment

Cavendish or Cipollini?

There are 2 categories of sprinters:

The one who needs a team to pilot them to the end of the race in the last 20\30km and the one who prefer to follow organized team and “swim” between team to team to stay or follow the “right wheel”.

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Cipollini needed a team to pilot all the way to 300\400mt at incredible speed, then he could increase the speed with the sprint and win.

Cavendish started his career by following other team “train” and win by his explosive sprint and great courage to stay on the right wheel at incredible speed and challenge other rider who wanted same position in the peloton.

Then his team decide that it will be even more effective for him to have a “train” to pilot his sprint, then he became what we know, almost impossible to beat him and became one of the greatest sprinter of all times.

cav

At the begin of my career, fresh from amateur and prolific sprinter in that category, I’ve try to get involved in sprints but very soon I realized the difference above, without a team train I only had the choice of get in the main part of the peloton at the right time and challenge the right wheel. Sometimes I did it and get top five places, but to win was for me almost impossible, my qualities were not good enough to jump and stay in the front at 70km\h. The risk was also great and decide later to avoid main bunch sprints and concetrate on team work and harder racing.

May 20, 2009 Posted by | Sprint | Leave a Comment

Pantani

No many people know, but the great Italian climber was also a great descend rider.

Particularly for positioning with his tummy on the saddle and his crutch at few milliliter from the back wheel.

I would not suggest you trying, because need a lot of practising, and Marco(Pantani) had a lot of empty roads to do it in is native Italian region.

Also need a lot of courage to ride at 70/80 km/h (40miles/h circa) with the back wheel so near your precious part of the body.

Next interesting position

2009_giro_d_italia_stage7_alessandro_bertolini_descends_rain

Maybe this one will be the next one?

prova bici in spalla 022

I prefer the classic position with your hands on the drop and tuck in aero position. What about you?

cartoon

May 16, 2009 Posted by | Descend | Leave a Comment

   

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