Unity is strength, as they have always said. And so, two youth cycling realities, one from Brescian Castrezzato and the other from Milanese Senago, have decided to join forces and create a team capable of making its mark among the Juniors, a category that is becoming increasingly important and attractive for World Tour teams.

The next 2026 season will start with a beautiful novelty: the birth of the Team Junior Guerrini Senaghese, a Brescian association based in Castrezzato. The enormous passion for cycling has pushed former professional Stefano Guerrini to agree with Pedale Senaghese, a team always at the forefront of youth categories.

Guiding the new formation is a technical director of great luxury and prestige: Leone Malaga. The Bergamo native from Palosco (born on March 24, 1975) comes from the Orobian powerhouse Team Giorgi, which decided to conclude its glorious activity this year, after a long life of triumphs at all levels, and of riders raised and launched into amateur and then professional ranks. Among the many, we remember Alessandro Covi, Luca Vergallito, Alessio Martinelli, Karel and Mathias Vacek, Luca Giaimi.

Leone "the sagacious", as we have nicknamed him over the years, has been in the team car since 2000 and boasts 825 victories between road and track. Numbers that speak for themselves. His ability to guide the group, to live with the young riders and stimulate them to the best is one of the qualities of a character who does not like to appear, but wisely prefers "substance". With the Bergamo team manager, we will discover something more and the objectives of the new society.

How did you arrive at the newborn team?
"When Carlo Giorgi decided to no longer run the team, consequently I found myself free after many beautiful years spent with him and his team, the proposal from the new team arrived. From the first meeting I had, I saw that there were all the prerequisites for doing good work, the society fully supported my requests and I am very satisfied because in these first two months the Team Junior Guerrini Senaghese is proving to be the right environment to develop the program we have in mind".

What were your requests?
"Coming from a team like Giorgi, I asked for the possibility of doing a high-level race calendar, as we did for many years with the Bergamo team. I asked for a roster of 12/13 athletes and not only did they support me, but the team is formed by 15 riders. An apartment was also found in Castrezzato where all the riders can stay together when we do various local retreats".

Have you already scheduled them?
"We will do two five-day retreats around New Year's. Then we will do a long 10-day retreat in the Marche, in Grottammare, where the team owns a structure to accommodate the riders, and this will happen the week before the start of races at the end of February. Finally, thanks to having Livigno among our sponsors, at the end of June we will do two weeks of retreat in Alta Valtellina to prepare for the end of the season".

What do you expect from this new adventure?
"I have gained 25 years of experience as a sports director and this makes me think I have a solid foundation to do good work. The group of riders we have in the team is important, we are not starting from scratch having second-year riders in the roster who come from Team Giorgi. The project is important and ambitious at the same time, at the first meeting I said that the goal is to become a reference team at the national level in three to four years. This is also seen in the resources the team is using to set up a first-class group of athletes, staff, and so on. The number of victories is relative, it also depends on the quality of races won. In these years I have shown how to win, I am not afraid to propose myself as a winner even in new teams".

The Juniors category (17/18 years old) is increasingly "talked about"...
"I think the evolution of the category has reached the point that if they do not insert a third year (instead of the canonical two, ed.) and consequently also a third year for the Allievi, we risk making the amateurs disappear. The Juniors category has become the most important and now there are more and more riders who go directly to World Tour teams and their Developments, or go abroad where they are totally followed almost at the professional level. I cannot say it is a bad thing, but neither is it entirely right. The fact is that this is the reality of cycling in these years".

25 years in the team car and not feeling them. What is the secret?
"The enthusiasm has remained inside me. Indeed, I am starting again with the enthusiasm of a young boy convinced that he can do a lot and learn a lot. I have guided various teams, I have had many riders to follow, I have gained a lot of experience, but above all I have understood one thing: you never stop learning!".