In a very relaxed and direct atmosphere, almost as if they had left their last names Mosca and Longo Borghini at home, Jacopo and Elisa returned to high school on Tuesday morning (with a double session due to significant attendance).

Not among the school desks, but in the auditorium of the Scientific High School "Maria Curie", which hosted a beautiful morning titled "Sports Meet School". Elisa and Jacopo are husband and wife, united by their cycling passion that led them to become professional cyclists. She, a multiple winner and icon of national women's cycling (you need to subtract to list her major achievements: two Giro wins, two Tours of Flanders, a memorable Paris-Roubaix, two Olympic bronzes), he, a luxury domestique, who almost tricked his wife during one of his eight Milan-San Remo races: "I go out in the morning for training and he's already in a breakaway, I connect during my preparation ride and there he is, I return home and five hours later he's still on video. I thought it was a still image or a recording..." jokes Longo Borghini, who attended high school in Domodossola.

It's Elisa's turn to praise the school experience: "Beyond logarithms or radicals, I believe it's a fundamental gym for human learning, made of intertwined relationships, shared values while respecting others. Something I managed to combine with my growing athletic commitment, an extra push in organizing my daily life as an athlete".

Mosca explains to the students the path that brought him from a young Sc Bricherasio rider to Lidl Trek, a powerhouse of professional cycling: a compendium of persistent determination: "Aware of the task assigned to me, that of a chosen collaborator, yet animated by the dream of being able to raise my arms to the sky again" (he feels emotional seeing a photo of himself winning the Tour of Hainan in China in 2017, ed.), "allow even a domestique like me this dream" .

With pleasure. Elisa presents a special souvenir related to her first Olympic bronze, when at the finish line her mother Guidina Dal Sasso told her: "That medal is the one I didn't win in 1992, because I gave up the Albertville 1992 Olympics to become your mother". Mosca, with the style of a perfect domestique, supports her even while she recalls the special state of mind (with her husband in the hospital after a terrible accident) with which she finished third in Tokyo "I'd like to point out that fifteen days before you won the Giro" he explains, who between a Tour of Sicily and the start of a training camp, found time to greet Elisa at the start of Roubaix, which she then won.

Regarding the balance between studies and sports, neither emphasizes the dimension of sacrifice, while Longo Borghini - who would like to learn sign language in the future - claims long-standing friendships ("maybe with people who know zero about cycling"), along with the bonds developed within the team.

"In the post-competitive career, we both see ourselves still in this environment, but the focus now is entirely on commitment with our respective teams" adds Mosca, like Elisa, still closely followed by their parents even now that races are not just around the corner ("my parents came to the Vuelta, also treating themselves to some tourism"). After the current off-season Jacopo will be the first to take a plane for an intercontinental trip, racing in Australia in January. In terms of accumulated flight miles, Longo Borghini fondly remembers a trip for pleasure: "Reunion Islands, it was my French teacher who instilled in us an interest in overseas territories. He was right, an amazing place".

Got it, school?

from L'Eco del Chisone