I am Claudio Corti, team-manager of the Scuderia Mercatone Due. Maybe you want to read my story. Well, here it is:
Some time ago, when I was at Monica's Bar in the "Pizzeria tre Stelli", I met Daniel. He is an attorney from Switzerland, about my age. First I thought that he is a smart guy. But then he told me, that he is playing computer games. What a silly hobby for a grown up man! Even worse, he talked about manager-games. "Manager-games"! That sounds to me like "black-snow" or "dry-rain"! I mean: managing is demanding labor! How can anybody try to make a game out of such a serious thing? And who wants to play a "game" that in fact is a hard work?
Anyway: Daniel told me, that he had wanted to make some story about a Swiss cycling team, quite similar to the "Tissot Swiss Cycling Project" (no idea what this could be), but with some slightly different limitations, like he could only hire riders without contract (I always thought that it's normal, that only riders without contract can be hired…). So he had wanted a team of mostly young riders plus some slightly older professionals as teamleaders. He then found it quite difficult to find enough good young riders in Switzerland and besides there already was this "Tissot Swiss Cycling Project".
I somehow missed the point of his explanations. In fact, I did not really listen to him, because I was more interested in the blond girl on the other end of the bar. But because she didn't want a drink from me, I kept on talking with Daniel.
When he heard that I am the team-manager of the Scuderia Mercatone Due, he was very interested and asked a lot of questions. Then he suggested, that he could write the story of my team instead of what he had planned to do. I agreed under the condition, that I don't have any work with that thing. So since then I deliver the news to Daniel, he then keeps on writing the story and mails it to me for any corrections. When everything is correct, I post it on this site, so everybody can follow.
Until 2012 I was sales-manager in an enterprise that produced so called "white-ware", that is household equipment like cooking stoves, refrigerators, washers and stuff like that. Then the company went bankrupt and I lost my job.
This is a quite common scenario in our days in Italy: Until 2000, Italy was a major producer of white-ware with hundreds of such enterprises like the one I worked for. Until then, due to the inflation, the lira lost some worth every year and therefore the Italian products stayed cheap on the world market and could be sold easily. With the invention of the Euro this changed: the production costs, especially the all year higher taxes, fees, wages and so on, now had to be paid in hard Euros instead of cheap lira and therefore the Italian products got more and more expensive (in Euro, Dollar or Francs), especially compared to those from Asia. The industry didn't have the money, the knowhow and the skill to invest in better technology, better production lines and better products to reduce the production-costs or to be able to raise prices. Therefore they could not compete with other producers among the world anymore and lost more and more ground. So since the invention of the Euro, Italy lost about 50% of its white-ware-industry.
In 2012 I could not find any job anymore. But because my two sons are still studying at the university and the divorce seems to become even more expensive than I had feared, I could not just grab my money and go to Santo Domingo to have a good life. Instead I had to find a job to earn my living and pay the alimonies.
Luckily, I have an old friend who works in a PR-company. He had the genius idea, to create a job by myself: establish a racing team and become the manager of that team!
I didn't understand and so he explained it to me: Marketing is only about publicity. Publicity is just about attention. And for attention you have to be in the media. If you want to sell a product, you have to make it and/or your enterprise well known. You can reach this goal by placing advertises, TV-spots and things like that. So an one page advertise in a magazine costs (for example) € 40'000.00, a commercial of 15 seconds in the TV, three times a day and one week long, costs maybe € 300'000.00 (plus production costs). Therefore you get a certain amount of attention for a certain amount of money.
Now you can choose another way and support for example a cycling team: they wear your logo and when they participate in a race or even win it, they (and your logo) will be seen in the TV, the newspapers and so on. So the better the team is, the more attention you get.
Every presence in the media has its value (according to the corresponding costs for advertisements, commercials and so on). This value is reported by specialized companies who scan every media. They report to you, how many times, how long and how large your logo was seen in the media and what the value of this presence (compared with the price for advertisements) is.
Now the clue is, to find a relatively unknown sportsman or team that is cheap to sponsor (compared to an already well-known team with big stars). If this sportsman or team is successful, you can easily get a return of your investment of 200% or 300% or more of value in form of media presence.
Well, I had no idea of what the team-manager of a cycling team does, but the explanations of my friend sounded logical and so we started to make a business plan. And I started an education on an internet-university. The € 3'000.00 for these two books and some questionnaires was quite a lot, but it would provide me a certificate as a coach that looked really impressive.
After we had made the business plan and a documentation about the advantages of sponsoring, we only had to find such a sponsor.
The PR-company, where my friend was working, had a client that wanted to start a large propaganda campaign and looked for the best way to do it: it was the Mercatone Due. They are from Torino and have stores merely in the area of Piemont. Now they wanted to expand to whole northern Italy, especially to Milano, Venezia and Trieste, and therefore had to become well known not only in Piemont, but all over northern Italy.
The owner of the Mercatone Due and its CEO is Giuseppe Grazielli. His son Andrea Grazielli is Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), and the husband of his daughter, so his son in law, Tommaso Montorfano, is the Chief Finance Officer (CFO). They were very interested in the idea of sponsoring a cycling team and so I was introduced to them as the manager of this future team and could present my business plan and documentations.
My plan was to sign only a few professionals as team leaders and in addition only young talented riders (which hopefully would develop to real stars). So the wages would be cheap and therefore the return of investment in form of media-value should be relatively high. Besides in autumn 2012 there were not many decent riders left, who didn't have a contract already…
It seemed that the managers of Mercatone Due had already had such an idea about a cycling team. They agreed in most of the points and seemed to be eager to start the project. And soon I understood why: CFO Tommaso Montorfano told me, that his son, Arternio Montorfano, was already amateur racer and would have to get a contract. Furthermore he wanted the friend of his son, Adrian Guerrisi, also to get a contract.
Oh boy, I thought. What will be next? Does he want his grandmother to join the team as a cheerleader? But what do you do if you desperately need a job and the one who annoys you has one to give? Right: you show him your admiration for his genius ideas and assure him that this is exactly what you need: a rider that is part of the sponsor's family so you can create even more common identity that will impress the public and help to recognize Mercatone Due.
At least it worked and we signed the sponsor-contract. We agreed upon a three-year-contract with the goals to get the logo of Mercatone Due into the media, achieve reasonable results in the first year, get promoted to continental-pro and participate in the Giro d'Italia at the latest in year three, where we should win at least anything, that means win a stage or a shirt (climber, sprinter, young rider). I had no idea, whether this was realistic or not. But who cares what will be in three years, when you can get a job today?
Now that I had the money, I could start to build up my team. Because Mercatone Due wanted to generate as much publicity as possible, we had to participate in as many races as possible. Therefore they agreed to sign up to 18 riders, so we would be able to participate in two races at the same time.
First I wanted to sign my staff. This was when I realized I had a huge problem: For some unknown reason, I had no position "team-manager" in my business plan. So instead of formally becoming team-manager with a wage of € 15'000.00 a month, I had to take the position of a coach for only € 6'700.00 and do all the work of the manager in addition. That means double the work for half the money!
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Well I made the best of it and at least I got a team handy and a team car. So I sold my own car and saved the money for gasoline, insurance and so on. The only bad thing about a team car is, that with the bikes on the roof it is too high to drive into the garage, as I learned the other day.
Then I started to search for riders. As you know, we had already to riders, Arternio Montorfano and his friend Adrian Guerrisi. At least they seemed to be fairly talented and therefore could fulfill a role in the team.
Next we looked for some professionals to sign. They should be able to lead a team and be strong enough to have a chance to win a podium or so (because we need it and could not expect this from the youngsters).
Because they are columbian and french, we also hired Morris Possoni, who was the best Italian climber available.
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At last we signed Francesco Ginanni: he is Italian too and should become our lead-out man for sprints.
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Then we searched for talented young riders. As I have no idea, how you can see the talent of a young rider, I just looked for the best climbers, best sprinters, best time trialists and so on. Luckily, Arternio Montorfano knew a lot of young riders and helped me with the search.
So we found another 12 decent young riders besides Montorfano and Guerrisi. Besides the above mentioned team leaders, our team now consisted also of some very promising young talents.
Fabricio DonÃ
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Tony Flaborea
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Gianguglielmo Giordani
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Adrian Guerrisi
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Giudo Iacobucci
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Pietro Lunini
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Porrozzi Marzocchi
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Arternio Montorfano
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Raffeale Nista
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Adalberto Pavarese
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Ivone Ragnoli
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Isacco Reggianini
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Alessandra Savastone
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Loreno Simoncelli
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Now that is our team:
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As you can see, we have some very good young climbers as Fabricio Donà , Isacco Reggianini, Tony Flaborea and Ivone Ragnoli.
The best young sprinters are Tony Flaborea (he again; a real allrounder), Giudo Iacobucci, Loreno Simoncelli, Arternio Montorfano and Adalberto Pavarese.
And then we have some quite good young time trialists as Tony Flaborea (again!), Ivone Ragnoli, Isacco Reggianini, Fabricio Donà , Pietro Lunini, Raffeale Nista, Gianguglielmo Giordani and Adrian Guerrisi.
With this team it should be possible to achieve some success!
After we had a budget and a team, I had to start with managing. First I had to plan the season and negotiate the sponsor objectives with Mercatone Due.
So we made up the race calendar and planned some training camps, as I was told that this would be important. As a new team we could not participate all the races we wanted. I got lot of refusals to my requests. But in the End we had quite some races to show what we have got. Our season will start early with the tour de San Luis.
The entire program 2013:
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The sponsor objectives were moderate, because it was our first season and we did not have any top riders. Mercatone Due asked for only some top 10 and top 5 results and some stage wins on Giro del Trentino, Amgen Tour of California and Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda by Bergamasca. Only for the Milano - Torino they wanted a podium, because the finish would be in Torino and therefore in our "hometown". Though a problem might be, that some of the important races will be late in the season. I hope our riders will not be too tired by then.
The sponsor objectives
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Because we had quite a number of races and therefore lots of expenses for travelling, hotels and so on, Mercatone Due agreed to pay these expenses in addition to the wages. And we could also always go to Antonio's Pizzeria tre Stelle for lunch and Antonio will send a monthly bill to Mercatone Due.
End of January we had our first public event: our team presentation. This was at the shopping center of Mercatone Due in Torino and was an impressing show. There were yello Mercatone Due flags all over the place, and all the kids got yello Mercatone Due caps.
Besides Mercatone Due had created an own sports line with clothes especially for cyclists and runners and has organized special bikes with the colors and logos of our team. So they will promote the team and merchandise simultaneously.
Despite this fantastic ceremony, there was not only positive response. Some so-called "experts" wrote some nonsense like a "unknown and inexperienced team manager might not be able to take advantage of the potential of the team". What do they know anyway? But at least we got a lot of media presence.
Just two days later my wife called me. She told me, that according to her attorney, a team manager earns at least 12'000.00 € a month and therefore I should be able to pay higher alimonys to her. I explained to her what the real facts are, but she didn't believe. So I promised to send a copy of my work-contract to her attorney.
As I didn't know much about cycling, I had to use a well known and common approach, called "learning by doing" (have you ever realized, that when you name something with an impressive title, everybody believes you know what you are talking about?).
So we started with training and first attended a training camp to get everybody to race-fitness. Soon some riders complained about training and also the father of Isacco Reggianini, Fabio Reggianini, wanted a talk with me. He is a pensioner today but had been an amateur rider in his younger days and now explained to me what - in his opinion - I was doing wrong. He was quite a pain in the neck.
So what should I do? I decided according to the saying "if you can't beat them, join them" and offered him a job as assistant manager. I could not offer him any wage, but gave him a team car. But as a pensioner he didn't need a wage anyway and was just happy to help.
So we talked a lot and he taught me about cycling. Until then I had always thought, cycling is very simple: everybody rides as fast as he can and the fastest one wins. But now it seemed to be a bit more complex. I learned about breakaways, sprinttrains and stuff like that.
In the end I was happy to have an assistant manager who knew about cycling. This would be helpful especially when we would have two races simultaneous: then Fabio could manage one of them.
Besides he could help with the daily training, so that I had more time for strategically planning. I did that work favorably at Monica's Bar in the Pizzeria tre Stelle. There Antonio would charge my drinks in the equivalent of orange jus (wine = 2 orange jus, chivas = 3 orange jus and so on) and put it on the monthly bill for Mercatone Due. That way managing could even be relaxing sometimes.
Our first race was the Tour de San Luis. I selected Donà , Ginanni, Iacobucci, Marzocchi, Ragnoli and Reggianini to take part. That was because of their fitness and because I wanted to give mainly the youngsters a chance to show what they got. I chose three climbers and three sprinters to have an active squad in every stage.
We travelled to Argentine a few days before the race to get used to the climate and to inspect the course. This tour was merely a test. We had no goal to achieve and therefore there was no pressure on us. We just wanted to find out where we stand and try out teamwork and tactics.
Tour de San Luis: Stage 1: San Luis - Villa Mercedes
This first stage was flat and therefore everybody expected a mass sprint. Nevertheless we wanted to show our logo and thus would try to get into a breakaway.
At the start, I ordered the complete team to the front of the peloton and, because it was a slight ascent, told Donà to attack.
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Look at these beautiful Mercatone Due jerseys!
He really succeeded to get away and Marco Corti and Robigzon Oyola joined. But the peloton didn't want to let them go and so their lead grew only to about 50 seconds. After a short while they were caught again. Then Shinichi Fukushima attacked and Reggianini followed. This time the peloton didn't react and so they got away.
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They could increase their lead up to 9 minutes, although Reggianini didn't really exert. But Fukushima didn't help at all and just hung on Reggianini's back wheel. Then the peloton raised the pace and pulled up easily.
Reggianini desperately wanted to get the sprint points and seconds to reach a good result in GC and therefore attacked several times to get rid of Fukushima. But he didn't succeed and only used too much energy. So Fukushima won the sprints and afterwards attacked himself to let Reggianini alone and without power.
So Reggianini was caught by the peloton about 16 km before the finish. As he was exhausted, he even could not hold the pace of the peloton and fell back. In the end he lost about 5 minutes. So we learned our first lesson. And we learned it the hard way.
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But we still had our sprinters in the peloton. So they formed a sprinttrain (Donà -Ragnoli-Marzocchi-Ginanni-Iacobucci) and tried to get to the front.
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In the beginning, Donà and Ragnoli lead the train. But they soon couldn't keep up with the high speed of the peloton. So I ordered Ginnani to the front to lead the train, because he has the highest flat stat. They got to the front of the peloton and 4 km to the finish also caught Fukushima (imagine what could have happen if he had helped Reggianini before!).
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At 3 km to the finish the sprint began. Ginanni still did well but could not hold the pace of the best. Then Marzocchi accelerated and pulled Iacobucci to the final straight, where he launched his sprint. These young guys did a fantastic job and ended up in 6th and 9th position! What a great result in our first race!
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Besides Ginanni finished 16th, Ragnoli 49th and Donà 59th, all in the same time.
Today there is the first and only mountain sprint after 50 km. So all the climbers want to attack and win this sprint to wear the mountain shirt tomorrow. Therefore it is a very nervous beginning.
On the first 30 km, also our climbers try to get in a breakaway and follow the attacks several times. But none succeeds. Finally after 34 km Jean-Lou Paiani, Marco Corti and Simone Campagnaro attack and can slip away. As my riders are too weak now to follow, I order the climbers to protect the sprinters, because it is quite clear, that there will be a mass sprint again.
The breakaway gains 1.5 minutes up to the mountain sprint.
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The breakaway built up a lead of 4 minutes, when the peloton raised the speed and slowly railed them back. At 20 km to the finish, the speed of the peloton was high and it was only 1 minute behind the breakaway. Because of this high pace, our climbers Donà , Reggianini and Ragnoli need a lot of power.
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At 11 km to the finish at the last ascend, the breakaway was caught by the peloton. Now everybody prepared for the sprint. At 8 km to the finish, our sprinttrain was formed and tried to get to the front.
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At 6 km to the finish, our train was still in a good position, but Donà , Ragnoli and Reggianini were spent. So Ginanni had to take the lead again. When the sprint began, Ginanni, Marzocchi, Iacobucci were in front.
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But they didn't have enough energy left to stay there. Besides there were some strong sprinters. So our riders were overtaken on the final straight and finished only in 12th, 13th and 15th place.
Today we have the first hilly stage. There is a steep ascent after 60 km and an uphill finish in the end.
So at the team meeting we decide, that we want to ride energetically today and try to control the race. We will raise the pace before the mountain sprints and try to tear the peloton apart, separating the sprinters. So and with the last ascent to the finish, our climbers should have the possibility to end up within the top ten.
As Iacobucci is a bit tired, I tell him to try to get into a breakaway early. Thus he would be first at the ascent to the mountain sprints and would have a chance to end up in the peloton after the mountain (instead of starting the ascent in the peloton and then fall back).
Iacobucci does as he is told an follows an attack after 3 km and ends up in the breakaway together with Antonino Parrinello and Jürgen Van de Walle. Then he just hangs on in the breakaway and doing no work only to get to the mountain in front of the peloton.
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In the meantime Ragnoli tells me on the team radio, that he feels excellent and that he has good legs today. I tell him to wait until the second half of the coming ascent and then take the lead and raise the pace.
Iacobucci reaches the hill 3 min in front of the peloton and now gets railed back as forseen. In the steepest part of the ascent the peloton reaches him.
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Now Scuderia Mercatone Due raises the pace. Donà leads with moderat effort. Then Ragnoli and Reggianini raise their endeavour and ride their own rhythm and speed. Ragnoli immediately pulls away with ease and overtakes the breakaway. Reggianini is a bit slower but follows behind.
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It looks like our plan works fine. The peloton splits apart, as more and more riders fall behind. Also Ginanni can't hold the speed and falls back. But Iacobucci can climb the hill in the peloton.
Now I have to make a tactical decision: Ragnoli is eager to hold the lead and try to make it to the finish by himself. But there are another 65 km to the finish with a long flat part in between.
I tell Ragnoli to slow down and wait for Reggianini (who is not as fit as Ragnoli). They shall roll with little effort and save energy. As Reggianini can relay, Ragnoli shall try to recover as much as he can. We want the peloton to chase them and get tired. Then we will attack again at the last ascent.
Ragnoli and Reggianini do as they are told and Ragnoli wins the sprint and precious 6 seconds without any endeavour.
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On the flat part, there is wind from the front. Ragnoli and Reggianini help each other and save energy, while the peloton is chasing hard. Iacobucci, Marzocchi and Donà have a hard time to keep the pace.
25 km to the finish the peloton catches up with Ragnoli and Reggianini. I order Marzocchi to protect Ragnoli, so he can keep on saving energy. In spite of the high pace of the peloton, some riders attack and gain some seconds of advantage. But nobody worries, because there still is this last slope.
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In the last ascent, all my riders ride with full effort. They don't attack, but just go their own speed as fast as they can. Ragnoli again rides away with ease. He really has the best legs today!
But now the other climbers desperately try to follow. Especially Dario Cataldo, Vasil Kiryienka and Kanstantsin Siutsou attack. Dario Cataldo closes in again but then he can't continue his effort and stays behind. Ragnoli comes to the final straight first and sprints with his last power.
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And there it is: the first victory of Scuderia Mercatone Due!
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With this victory Ragnoli also wins the leader shirt, the mountain shirt and the young rider shirt! What a fantastic victory! And what a genius masterpiece of tactics from the team manager!
And so Mercatone Due got on the frontpage for the first time and earned hundreds of thousands € of publicity value!
Today we had a ITT over 19 km. I didn't see much of it, because I had a real bad headache. There must have been something wrong with the champagne I drunk yesterday when celebrating Ivone's victory.
But on an ITT there's not much to do for the team manager anyway. Everybody knows what to do and doesn't need any advice. And because Ivone Ragnoli is a good time trialist, he did well and finished 16th with only 49 seconds backward to Adriano Malori. With his effort he even defended his lead in the GC! So tomorrow he will wear the leader shirt again!
