Introduction

“Winning is not important, it’s all that matters”. It’s a famous quote by Giampiero Boniperti, a historic Juventus manager, to set the philosophy that has always lead the team. A catchphrase, captivating and exciting for the supporters and which reflects the ruling logic inside professional sports.

Winning is essential, no one can deny it. Winning is the goal of months or years of hard work, in any sport or practice. Winning is essential to please the sponsor and attract new ones. But this is not a book about sports marketing or to judge the goodness or not of this aspect.

Boniperti’s quote serves as a guideline because for cycling it’s not always like that. Beyond the beauty of winners who inflame the audience and the streets there is another soul (among the many which cycling owns) which always arises during the races. That of those who sprint ahead. And those who enter the sprint of the day, win.

So as one may be born (or become) a sprinter and climber, supporting rider and champion, so it’s a form of art being able to become a “breakaway”. If you analyze the numerous cycling eras, you will notice that each era has its own specialists of sprinting ahead.

Which are the characteristics of a “breakaway”? There is no default list, but one must be reactive, have strong legs, be able to seize the right moment and study the road correctly. As well as this, one must figure out who one can sprint with.

In cycling there is a script which repeats itself, despite this being unplanned. Whether it’s an in-line race of 1 day or a leg inside a big Tour, the development of a race is predictable. Ready, GO! and start the sprint. In some cases, 1 is enough. In other cases the competition is more intense and to see someone able to run away may need from 10 to 50km. I repeat, there is no written rule and it depends upon the mood and the will of the group.

The sprint ahead, most of the time, is recouped. When? Even here, there is no fixed pattern. Generally,

if it’s a leg for sprinters, the breakaway may take a margin (between 2 and 4 minutes) from the group which closes 20km from the finish line (even less). If it’s a leg with many climbs then the catching up might take less time.

The key point is to figure out if the breakaway is going to be successful or not - no one has a crystal ball. For this reason the sprinters who are ahead offer the audience and commentator a story to talk about, wondering how it will end.

Breakaway specialists often are cyclists of Professional or Continental teams (not World Tour) which have interest in placing their men inside the breakaway of the day, for “advertising” reasons. They are cyclists who wouldn’t have many chances to win and decide to use the first three quarters of the race to show off.

Often the breakaway is useful for the audience to find new cyclists, new faces and stories that otherwise would be confined, or even hidden.

The Team Novo Nordisk is one of those teams which have to sprint ahead. Unable to participate, by regulation, in all the most important races of the world calendar (because it doesn’t belong to the World Tour circuit), the American team must make most out of the invitations that they receive from some important international races. Among these the Milan-Sanremo, but also the UAE Tour, Tour of Poland or the Tour of California - Races which have international appeal and attraction, with prominent TV and media coverage.

Born with the name Team Type 1 at amateur level in 2005, thanks to Phil Southerland and Joe Eldridge, the team of guys all suffering from type 1 diabetes has switched to professional in 2008. The turning point was in 2011, when they entered the Professional-Continental teams and their consequent attendance to the Tour de Suisse or the Tour of Turkey. Since 2013, the team is named Team Novo Nordisk and in 2015 the first invitation to participate the Milan-Sanremo arrived. The Super Classic Spring has become the pride of the team in the last few seasons, with its cyclists able to enter in the breakaway of the day. The dream, not hidden, is to participate to a big Tour, like the Tour de France, but in the meantime the small steps policy has paid off.

Sprinting ahead, for those guys, takes on even more value. They bring their ambitions and dreams with them, but they also spread a very important message all over the world: Even with type 1 diabetes one is able to play sport and can even do it at the highest level.

One needs commitment, dedication, focus, a good diet and meticulousness. But what seemed impossible or unreachable until a few years ago, is real today.

To sprint ahead, for Team Novo Nordisk, has become a goal and a mission and their goal is to enjoy the journey. Inside this book we are going to discover the stories and direct testimonies of some of the team members, which will help us to understand the history of the team as well as the goals they wish to accomplish.

For a commentator, stories like these are essential. It helps to have different viewpoints. It helps to gain perspective in the valuation of the relationship between sport, life and success. It helps to go back to the deep and indispensable values of cycling and sport in general. It helps to understand that behind the apparently easy pedaling which repeats itself millions of times, there is a one-of-a-kind world to be discovered and discussed.

Sport is a testimony. It has always been, from the times of Olympia to modern days. Sports champions are models, an example for everyone. When they hand down positive values, they realize one of the missions of sport: teaching. Inside sport and doing sport, one develops and informs those who are around us. For this reason, the story of the guys of Novo Nordisk is a perfect example of sport. Although, from personal experience, I knew that something like that would hardly have risen, seeing many cyclists of Novo Nordisk, among whom there are two Italians Poli and Peron, thinking about their stories and their desire to prove that even with diabetes, one is able to race at high levels and to be protagonists, is something which excited me. As long as the breakaway lasted, I cheered for them. “

Renato Di Rocco President of Italian Cyclists Federation