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(Photo: Roberto Bettini)
Matteo Carrara is one of many professionals who come from Italy's Lombardia region. He has been racing professional since 2001, but there are not too many reasons why cycling fans would know his name. It is the same with the Tour de Luxembourg; it is just another one of those national tours that fills the UCI calendar. However, Carrara won the overall classification Sunday and climbed onto the podium: to his right, Fränk Schleck, and to his left, Lance Armstrong.
"It was big because there were such important riders there," said Carrara, "like Schleck and Armstrong, who made the win that much sweeter."
It took 31-year-old Carrara many years to arrive on that podium and to win the race that Schleck and Christian Vande Velde have won in the past. His cycling-mad father, Salvatore, took him riding on the Seriana Valley roads near their home in Alzano Lombardo, north of Bergamo. His mom, Gabriella, kept him motivated and chasing his dream as the years passed.
 Carrara on the podium with Schleck and Armstrong (Photo: Roberto Bettini)
"I was already playing soccer, but it did not inspire me like cycling. Once I picked up the habit, I couldn't quit!"
There is a yell from across the room. It is one of Carrara's two children, his four-year-old boy, Jan.
"I lacked the right people around me when I was young to become a great champion. But, if you have the right people around you, like I could possibly do for my son, or if there is a good team that can give good advice, then you will reach your objectives a lot quicker."
Carrara bounced around teams – Colpack, Lampre, Barloworld, Unibet.com, and Quick Step – early on, but has now found his home in a Dutch team, Vacansoleil. He joined it for 2009 and signed a contract at the end of last year that will take him through 2011.
"I am a particular type of person and it took me a while to find a team where there was harmony and not jealousy – a team where everyone has a role. There are teams, many in Italy, that do not assign roles for their riders. If there are 25 riders, only three or five will have roles and the rest are just told to work for the leader. Then, at the end of the season, you are without a contract and you do not know why.
"At teams like Sky, RadioShack, Astana and Vacansoleil, the workers are given roles and if they do those jobs then they are rewarded."
Vacansoleil had a big year last year with its debut in a Grand Tour at the Vuelta a España. Helping the team was the fact that the race started in The Netherlands, as with this year's Giro d'Italia and Tour de France. The organizers did not reward the team with invitations this year, though, even if the team had signed several key French riders, including winner of last year's Tour de France stage to Arcalís, Brice Feillu.
Instead of making a big fuss, the team focused on the spring classics and now, the Tour de Suisse. Carrara finished just off the podium, in fourth in 2007 and, with his win in Luxembourg, will be Vacansoleil's leader for the week-long stage race.
This week, the team's sports directors have been calling him up daily to see how he is recovering and how his training is coming along.
"We are planning for a good Suisse for two reasons, we want to be in the top 17 teams for next year and because it is the most important tour for us since we are not racing a Grand Tour.
"It is suited to me this year, there are two time trials [7.6km and 26.9km - ed.], but neither is very long and both are hard."
To win he will have to hold his own in those time trials and gain time over Armstrong the mountain stages. Working in his favor though, is that he already beat the seven-time Tour de France champion at the Tour de Luxembourg. |
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