It is a long message that Rebecca Gariboldi posted last night on her social media profiles. A message in which the 29-year-old Lombard from Alè Colnago declares her love for cyclocross without hiding her disappointment for not being called up to the world championship scheduled for Saturday in Hulst, Netherlands.

Gariboldi, Italian vice-champion in Brugherio, and protagonist of a brilliant cyclocross season in which she has strung together seven podiums and several international top 10 finishes, in the message we will share entirely in the next lines, also addresses young athletes and sets a date for upcoming races.

No World Championship, not this year either.

Not even after raising the bar higher than I imagined in my dreams. Days of commitment, hard work, sacrifices, planning and sweat, mine and those of the people who work with me all year, to grow and obsessively seek improvement. The improvement we have found and that is giving us many beautiful results and satisfaction.

Not being at the start of the world championship is a defeat, more than personal, for my sport and for the pure love I have for it.

Being at the level of the top 10 athletes in the world and having to watch the world championship from home is, to say the least, frustrating and unfair. I am sure that on Saturday Sara Casasola will represent us in the best possible way, but together with her we could have been at the start with 6 Italian athletes, and this year I saw more than one worthy of participation.

To the young people, who will be the experts of tomorrow: I wish you to be so lucky as to find a team like mine that allows you to live and turn your dreams into a job. I wish you to go fast and achieve certain results, even better than mine.

It won't be simple, and in fact, most of the time it will seem impossible and you will feel abandoned by those who preach your growth but then, at the right moment, disappear: you must never stop believing in yourselves. But if one day you decide not to believe anymore and do something else, today I can understand you a little more.

Thanks to my mind, which in the end is always tougher than my legs and doesn't give up even this time. My heart hurts right now, but this will be fuel for my improvement.

The season is not over yet. See you at the start of the next cyclocross races