Comparing two myths, an interview to see and hear 100%. Riccardo Magrini , the voice of Eurosport cycling meets the Lazio coach Maurizio Sarri , a great cycling enthusiast and a rookie rider as a young man:

“The story begins forever, my family is a family of cyclists, grandfather, father, uncles, it was normal to get passionate about and ride a bicycle. The anomaly for me was football, not cycling - begins Sarri - I was a good cyclist and a mediocre player, I felt the responsibility of achieving results, coming from a family of cyclists. Then all my friends played soccer and I started playing soccer, but the love for cycling has always remained. As a cyclist I was a fast long-distance racer and I enjoyed the downhills a lot, today I would be a classic rider in Belgium and not a grand tour rider, a Van Aert would be a bit too much, perhaps…”

“My first memory of cycling is a Giro d'Italia won by Gimondi, it seems to me about Anquetil, but I was little, Francesco Moser gave me the total lightning strike, I went to play and calculated the bookings for being disqualified on the day of the Paris-Roubaix. I followed Moser with enormous passion. I found him one morning in Versilia on my bicycle, I turned around and stood a few meters behind him.  

Then a video-greeting from Moser, in which Sarri gets visibly excited:   “I thank Francesco, for me it is an emotion to think that he dedicated 10 minutes to me and sends me these gifts, for me he was an idol and will remain an idol for life. Then afterwards there was total enlightenment with Pantani”.  

“We have an age and we begin to think that the previous period is always more beautiful, but unlike other sports in cycling there is the road and the road is always the same. Now we have the good fortune to witness a beautiful period, with three, four interpreters who make the race interesting, not just the last three or four kilometres. What is currently there I have seen in a few generations”.

“I watch the races at night, April is the month of the classics and it's also the decisive period of the season (in football) ed, so I try to turn off my cell phones and then when I'm done with work, at nine or ten I get there and I watch the whole stage. Between a Champions League final and Paris-Roubaix, I would watch Paris-Roubaix all my life.

The fundamental difference between football and cycling is that in football you play a game, in cycling you play a sport. In football, technical ability can be more important than 100% physical expression. In cycling, if you don't go to maximum physical expression, there's no solution, so the guys who cycle are much more attentive to details. I think that in terms of reintegration and nutrition they are much ahead of football.  

Landismo and Sarrismo are those beautiful philosophies and almost always losers, because the beauty is the journey, not the destination of the journey, we like this journey, then if victory comes at the end, fine, but that's not the only thing that matters. My favorites among the riders now are Pogacar and Van Aert, but the other names are also the ones that make cycling spectacular. We should bring these riders to the Giro to make the race more spectacular, but at the moment the difference between the Giro and the Tour is like the difference between Serie A and the Premier League.

We are in a moment in which we are waiting for Italians, we have riders who can do well in one-day races, we lack what could give visibility to the whole Italian cycling system and could make young people passionate about cycling".

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE https://www.eurosport.it/ciclismo/a-ruota-libera-riccardo-magrini-interview-maurizio-sarri-vi-racconto-il-mio-ciclismo._vid1938561/video.shtml