Franco Noti (Bern, Switzerland, 27 years old) was yesterday a middle-distance runner; today he is a regatta sailor; and tomorrow he wants to compete in the Tour de France. With no experience in cycling, he switched from athletics to sailing overnight and last January he became a new athlete. cyclor Alinghi Red Bull Racing (Switzerland). His mission on Monday, on the third day of the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals, is to pedal during the race against Ineos Britannia (United Kingdom) to generate power and activate the devices that guarantee the aerodynamics of the boat.
A middle-distance runner who regularly finishes on the podium at national championships, Noti’s great dream was to take part in Paris 2024. He was convinced that he had the potential to compete at the Games, but physical problems limited his growth. After his eighth foot injury, he gave up. Frustrated, in January 2023 he went to Girona because he knew that the city had become a hornet’s nest of cyclists. He wanted to test his skills on the pedals. He felt like a gifted person who had never been able to reach his physical peak.
One day he rented a bike and started to do the kilometres. He left the capital of Girona at half past six in the morning and arrived in Barcelona at ten. It wasn’t enough. And he continued. Tarragona, Tortosa, Vinaròs, Valencia, Alzira. All the way to Alicante. In one go, without sleeping and stopping at petrol stations to buy food. At 29 hours and after 605 kilometers, he rested“I had lost all hope in athletics and needed a challenge. I really enjoyed it and started training to challenge myself again,” she explains.
His values began to improve and he entered some races. He went without a team and, he explains, with an old Colnago bike. Without disc brakes and with the brake cables visible. “People looked at me and laughed at me for not having shaved legs,” he recalls. But when the road got steeper, few followed him. “I started to do well and won some races without having hardly trained. I felt I had potential,” he adds.
He started putting in 15 to 20 hours a week, his records grew and his life changed. He received calls from Bora Hansgrohe (now Red Bull Bora, where Primoz Roglic, recent winner of La Vuelta, rides) and Alinghi Red Bull Racing. “I went to Salzburg (Austria) a year ago to do tests for Bora, but they asked me for more time,” he explains. “I was 26 years old and I decided to go to Alinghi because I couldn’t wait any longer. They saw my watts and offered me the job,” adds the young man.
“The main demand is to perform sprints repeatedly: between 10 and 15 seconds and then return to cruising speed,” explains Kilian Philippe, coach of the Orient Express, which has already been eliminated. The America’s Cup has opened the doors to many athletes who have found a new life in the interior cabins of sailing boats, provided they can generate an average of 450 watts by pedaling during the 25 minutes or so that a race lasts. Most teams have champions in rowing, cycling and even crossfitas Maxime Guron (Orient Express).
It took David ‘Freddie’ Car, a member of Ineos Britannia (UK) two years to feel comfortable with his new body. He was part of the British team in the editions where the boat’s power was generated by the arms (the so-called grinders) and decided to take the step to cyclor“It took me a long time to feel like I had transferred my aerobic capacity from my arms to my legs,” he explains.
To be part of the team he had to pass a physical test which he passed on the second attempt. “They asked us for 450 watts on average for 20 minutes,” he adds. The training sessions were based on long practices of about 20 or 25 hours a week in Palma and gradually increased the intensity. “There are different types of cyclists,” Car explains. “Some are good at medium power, but they don’t have a great sprint. Others may not have as much medium power, but they have a great punch when it is needed,” he adds. The aim is to have a balance on board to feed the competitive demands. With less wind, more manoeuvres are needed and, therefore, more physical response. And so far the breeze in Barcelona has been more gentle than intense. “We are the ones who suffer the most,” laughs the Briton.
Car and Noti will face each other on Monday in the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup, the competition that will determine Team New Zealand’s rival in the America’s Cup final. If the British win a race, they will qualify for the semi-finals. The Swiss fantasizes about his future: “If I try to dedicate myself to cycling, I would like to ride the Tour, but we’ll see. Now it’s time for the America’s Cup,” he says. Where he pedals and flies at the same time.
