No bikes, no support vehicle, no sponsors, no managers. Just seven juniors and a twenty-one-year-old among the Under 23s, plus about ten amateurs. But it has a soul. And that's enough.

It's called Velodrome Marcon. Velodrome not because it has a track, but for the musicality, charm, and seduction of the French word. And Marcon is not another Gallicism, but the name of a municipality in the metropolitan city of Venice, 17,000 inhabitants and this cycling team that immediately made clear to its boys: you must use your own bike, buy your own jersey, make your own membership card. And that's enough.

Simone Tortato is 51 years old, from Venice, and he's the one who brought Velodrome Marcon to life. He inherited his passion for cycling from his father, Rizzieri, a painter and decorator, artist and sculptor: "First races as a young rider, with good results, which would have been better if I hadn't found, as an opponent, Simone Cadamuro". Duels, but also alliances: "As juniors, a breakaway happened, we agreed on the chase, we came back, then the sprint, he made me win, me first and him second". A total of 27 victories: "Close, maybe two steps away from professional cycling, as an under 23 I still thought I could compete, but then a knee injury stopped me for six months, an opportunity to join the family business in event setup, goodbye cycling". A farewell that lasted a few years: "When a friend confided that his son wanted to race, I said yes and rediscovered that world of races and riders. We started with that boy, Pietro Foffano, and my daughter, Anna Lucrezia. Pietro would prove talented, first among the youngest at the National Meeting, a kind of Italian championship, on road and track and second in cyclocross, then, for his own good, redirected to richer and more organized teams. Other kids who had never raced or had been excluded and left behind would join them. Their bikes, my car as a support vehicle, white, orange and black jerseys with stripes and stars, the support of the Marcon Municipality, some contribution for affiliation, and here we are".

Names and surnames: Ruben Pistolato, Jonathan Recchia, Giovanni Florian, Domenico Berra, Edoardo Cosentino, Francesco Larice and Filippo Berdusco are the juniors; Mattia Zago the under 23. Together, they haven't won a single race in their careers. However, Larice lives in Manzano and travels 100 km each time to train with his teammates; Recchia lives in Combai and always comes and goes by train; Zago has never raced in his life; at races, to avoid looking unprepared, they now have a small gazebo, chairs and tables; and once, after gaining fourth place in a track event, they celebrated as if they had won a world championship or an Olympic medal. "For my part - explains Tortato - and I said this immediately, I put in time, some experience, lots of goodwill and sports director training courses". Plus there are always the amateurs, even capable of winning an Italian championship in team time trial: "But more important their participation in 2025 in the Imola Six Hours to raise funds for autistic individuals". Velodrome Marcon must have a calling in the race against time. Because its recruitment among the last and abandoned, its faith in simplicity and clarity, its enormous human predisposition and limited financial resources seem to clash with the obligations of current cycling and today's sports rules. "We're the ones who train in a little-frequented area of a municipal park, mountain bikes for the older ones and children's games, where everyone gets a prize for the little ones. We're the ones who train in the fog, in the cold, under the rain, and not in Spain or the Canaries. We're the ones who a couple of months ago went on a day trip to Slovenia, to try the track, three hours driving, three or four hours cycling on rented bikes, another three hours driving back, everyone happy and content, even the parents".

That's why the lion, the team's symbol, a reproduction of the artwork built with a mosaic of small stones by dad Rizzieri Tortato, seems to be smiling.