After four seasons spent with Astana Kazakhstan Team, Samuele Battistella recently signed up for two seasons with the American team EF Education-EasyPost led by Jonathan Vaughters. In an interview given to our Italian colleagues from Bici.Pro, Battistella looks back on his break with the Kazakh team led by Alexander Vinokourovand explains: “What I will take with me to EF Education-EasyPost is the conviction that in the World Tour, without planning the activity well, you go nowhere. You can't go shopping without working hard, and that's what I think I will have done in 2023 and 2024.” An interview in which the Italian openly criticizes the lack of professionalism of the team Astana Kazakhstan Team.
Video – Battistella was beaten by Lapeira in the Basque Country
“I felt like they didn’t care about having me as a runner anymore”
“When we spoke I made no secret that I had already signed with the new team, I wanted to be honest with them. I remained professional and serious until the end. Even when I broke my collarbone at the end of the season, I didn't give up. On the contrary, I trained hard to recover. On the team side, I don't feel like I got the same treatment.” he explains. “I felt like they no longer cared about having me as a runner, the relationship had changed.”
Battistella continues by detailing a situation which particularly marked him: “I can understand, but being excluded for a week or two from the Tour de France hurt me. I fell ill at the Tour de Suisse and did not participate in the last stage, despite the doctor's advice. I saw an attitude from the team that I didn't like, as if I was unreliable because I am often sick, according to their way of seeing things.“
A blatant lack of support
“JI certainly didn't feel supported and involved like before. In December, I wasn't supposed to do the Tour, then it was finally yes, depending on spring performances, and then still nothing because of a fever at the Tour de Suisse. We will never know how it would have happened. Maybe the first week I would have had more difficulty, but then I think I would have regained my level. It's also thanks to the hard work I put in, spending 23 days with the team in Sierra Nevada. I had never spent so many days at altitude“, explains the Italian.
“All the work has been lost, because in July there are no races. So I stopped, because I would never have been able to maintain my condition until the end of the season. Just as I was getting back to my best, I broke my collarbone“, concludes the 25-year-old runner, now a new recruit for the American team EF Education-EasyPost.
