"Time goes by fast" reflects Felix Garcia Casas, when we appreciate the years that have passed since he was a professional.
25 years ago, no less than a quarter of a century, Félix García Casas was one of the fixed faces in that cycling that was televised almost every week, from any point in Spain, lap after lap, in a sequence that we knew almost by heart: Mallorca, Andalusia, Valencia, Setmana, Aragon, Basque Country...
"It was a very different kind of cycling, but beware that back then things were not so easy, no matter how many teams there were. Look, the year I climbed, only seven riders did it, and there were twelve or thirteen teams," he describes.
Jesús Hernández is something else, on the other side of the conversation, he pulls out years of his time in the pros, more recent experiences come to him, more tender in his memory. "I hung up my bike in 2017, not so long ago" he specifies, who was in the gap since 2004, in the days of Liberty Seguros.
His pride? "To have seen almost all of Alberto's great victories in first person" he announces jubilantly.
The lessons of the trade
Félix García Casas and Jesús Hernández are now part of the Alberto Foundation structure. The first is general manager, the other director of Kometa, the continental team at the top of a pyramid that includes school, junior and U23 structure.
Both know perfectly well what sensations run through the cyclist's body when he is in competition, training, resting, in each of the cycles of the professional.
"I want to teach them the trade", says Jesús Hernández, "I want them to work with discipline, that things don't happen at random, that there is a firm work behind it, that we are a team, not a gang".
And he continues: "I want concentration on the road, here we are talking about thousands of circumstances. To aspire to things, you have to run like a big team. This is not a game.
It's not a game, especially not at the levels that Jesús Hernández manages, in his hands is the top of the structure, from here have come several professionals who will debut in the World Tour this 2020.
Felix has a more general vision. He started managing the youth team and has been growing in responsibilities as the structure of the Alberto Contador Foundation has grown.
Today between the three teams we are talking about 37 cyclists, apart from the staff, then forty kids have passed through the school. "We are a full-fledged SME," Félix adds, "add another ten people working full time in other areas.
But this management does not detract one iota of interest from the reasons that Felix found in cycling, because "I love the development categories, knowing about the youth, the U23s, having direct contact with them, having their feelings, knowing about their problems. After having gone through all kinds of scenarios, now I approach the problems with the feeling of having experienced them before".
Promotion as an objective
But all this does not make us lose sight of the fact that "we are a promotional structure," Félix repeats.
"Our pride, our victories are in the riders we are able to place in the World Tour," Jesús adds.A promotion that has in Gobik a strategic partner, both in the entire structure and in the schools.
"I know the brand through Alberto, they are young and already have a place in cycling. I have Gobik I use it in my training sessions, so how can I not recommend it to the kids," Jesús explains.
To which Félix adds: "For us Gobik is key to this project, their image and materials are perfect for what we want. They have been with us for a year and the experience is recommendable. We live on image and performance, in both fields they comply with us".
This year Kometa will carry the co-sponsorship of Xstra and in the mind is to repeat the successes of 2019, successes that speak of the passage of Stefano Oldani to Lotto-Soudal, Juanpe Lopez and Michel Ries to Trek-Segafredo and Isaac Canton to Burgos-BH. Another story is that of Carlos Rodriguez, from juveniles to Team Ineos, via direct.
These are the things that enhance the project, that give it meaning, although perhaps one day the goal may be a destination team, the goal for the best in the world.
Then the project will have reached its peak.
Texts: JoanSeguidor's Notebook
Photos: Attila Madrona
