BARCELONA, 27 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The former professional cyclist Melcior Mauri, now captain of the ambitious and at the same time supportive KH-7 team for the Titan Desert Morocco 2024 that starts this Sunday, assured that at this moment he enjoys more accompanying his teammates and helping, captaining in all the senses the different races within the Titan, rather than trying to compete in it as he did in the first editions, winning the 2007 race.
In an interview with Europa Press, Melcior Mauri, winner of the 1991 Vuelta a España and runner-up in the world time trial during his time as a road cyclist, assures that now he no longer has the active competition chip but rather the opposite, that he goes to this Titan Desert from Morocco, number 16 or 17 (“I don’t even count anymore”) on her legs, enjoying making the rest of the KH-7 team happy.
“Personally, and although I continue competing and participating as a runner in the Titan Desert, my goal is no longer sporting. My goal now is to enjoy the race, to accompany in some cases those runners who rather seek to be ‘ finishers’ or going at a pace that is not excessively high. I am more satisfied with that type of parallel competition,” he said.
For the Catalan, born in Vic 58 years ago, his competitive stage is “very far away,” like when he won the second edition of the Titan Desert in 2007 or when he achieved third place in 2009. “I’ve already changed the chip and that competition philosophy. Before I motivated myself, I trained and I wanted to suffer to achieve performance. Now I have changed and I want to help,” he reiterated.
Mauri explains that he has little time to train and that, if one wants to perform, one must dedicate more time to the Titan. “It is very difficult to be with the best. I no longer think about winning but about the team working well. In my case it is carefully preparing the entire navigation process and ensuring that those competing in the race do not lack anything. I feel calmer and happier doing it like this than not purely looking for a sporting result,” he added.
Of course, he acknowledged that “it has its complexity” to captain a team that has runners “from everything”, both those who seek the final victory like Josep Betalú and those who come to be a ‘finisher’ or the famous races, like the Michelin star chefs Paco Roncero and the Torres brothers (this time only Sergio can participate due to Javier’s injury) or Lluc Crusellas, considered the best chocolatier in the world.
“As director and coordinator of the project, I look for performance and I look for sporting results. There is that facet of those riders who really are mountain bike professionals who dedicate themselves exclusively to this and who must be taken care of to the maximum, in the smallest detail. , so that this performance can be a reality and nothing fails,” he commented.
“Then there are runners who seek to be ‘finishers’ and finish the race, live the experience and obviously the performance, taking half an hour more, an hour more in each stage, does not even concern them. But they do want to enjoy the project, Therefore, we must take great care of each of the runners, each one in his objective, so that his dream and his objective in the race are truly fulfilled,” he added.
Melcior Mauri acknowledged that one of the participants of the KH-7 team in which he will focus the most will be Lester Fernández, with an 81 percent disability that prevents him from walking but not riding a bike. The Cuban, in 2023, was the first to finish the Titan Desert in Morocco and the Titan Series in Almería and Saudi Arabia in the same year.
“In the dune stage, we have to walk and he can’t, because last year I decided at that stage to accompany him to mark an alternative track, skip the checkpoint that is in the middle of a dune and that It means that they sanction us with five hours in the general classification. And I didn’t care at all, what I really wanted was to keep him company,” he said. “This year I’m going to do exactly the same thing so you can see a little bit of what philosophy I’m going with. My general classification is not going to be a priority for me at all,” he stated.
In any case, no matter what the chip goes, he assured that a Titan Desert “gets you hooked” because of a “cocktail of things.” “I always say that for me it is an experience. Any cyclist who likes mountain biking should live this experience at least once; from the route, the environment, the coexistence, from seeing the entire setup of the camp with ‘haimas’ in the middle of the desert. It’s special,” he highlighted.
The one who will go for victory in the KH-7 team is the four-time winner of the test Josep Betalú. “He is a very experienced runner, who has actually won the race four times and this year I see him very motivated,” Mauri highlighted. “I see him with great desire, with great enthusiasm to be able to try to achieve that fifth victory, which would be the rider who has managed to win it the most times. Therefore, we are going with that ambition. We have assembled an important team around him so that he has the maximum support,” he acknowledged.
Mauri, who assures that he no longer wants to compete as before for the race and focuses more on the solidarity, emotional and family part of the Titan Desert, acknowledged that he liked the spirit of the first Titan, organized by RPM with Joan Porcar, better. Not now those that also have the hand of ASO, which makes them more professional than not familiar. “Whether you like it or not, the race is taking on a more international scope, it is becoming a little more professional, and that makes us notice it. For the runners, the format has also changed a little, since the new management,” he said.
“Before there was Joan Porcar, who really is the person who contacted me in my first Titan Desert to see if I wanted to live this adventure and this competition. And whether you like it or not, I have experienced that generational change, and as you say, it is more professionalized , the Titan Desert organization is being seen as something more businesslike. I personally don’t like it, but I understand that perhaps it is the role of any organization,” he said. “Before I felt that she was really contributing much more to the growth of this race. Now she is at the top, she is big now, and I feel like just another participant,” she explained.
A more professional race, more ‘top’ and also harder due to the combination of route and heat. “The race itself is hard, the competition is very hard. But everything that comes with it when you enter the desert area, where the heat is everywhere and is scorching in the race and in the haimas, also makes it hard. at the afternoon break. That is what punishes the cyclists, their strength and spirits diminish. That is why I say that the race is extremely hard,” he highlighted.