Trek-Segafredo manager Luca Guercilena, like nearly everyone else involved in pro cycling, breathed a sigh of relief Monday as the Vuelta a España arrived in Madrid, and despite the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the modified He was pleased that the world tour calendar was almost complete.

The pandemic interrupted racing from March until late July, but since then all three Grand Tours, the Giro Rosa, and all major classics and other races have been held without incident.

Spectators were restricted at the races and there were occasional COVID-19 cases in the peloton, but protective bubbles and constant inspections kept the race relatively safe.

Because sponsors did not honor their contracts, some teams faced significant salary sacrifices to survive, and team budgets and player salaries will be reduced in 2021, but at least 18 men's World Tour teams will register in 2021 and nine women's teams will status is being requested.

Trek-Segafredo's men's team won only three races in the rescheduled season, and Vincenzo Nibali was unable to compete against his young rivals in the Giro d'Italia. However, Richie Porte finished third in the Tour de France, and Mads Pedersen won in Ghent-Wevelgem.

Meanwhile, Elisa Longo Borghini finally took a stage win at the Giro Rosa and won the bronze medal at the World Championships behind Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) and Annemiek van Fluten (Mitchelton-Scott).

Guercilena and his staff are still looking back on the season to understand what went right and what went wrong. Both the Trek Segafredo men's and women's teams will remain largely unchanged in 2021, based on the significant roster changes introduced in 2020.

For now, Guercilena is happy that the sport is coming off a season of regrouping. While other sports are facing far more serious financial problems, procycling is surviving for now.

"We've been living day by day for the last few months, and it's been worth it," Guercilena told Cycling News.

"We have been talking and working together since March to make sure the race goes ahead and maintain the advantage that cycling has built over other sports. We have proven to the world that we can do it.

"Because road racing is an outdoor sport, we were able to hold the event even after the spring blockade. There was a lot of stress, but I think the protective bubble worked. At Trek Segafredo, we took extra precautions to protect the team bubble, such as putting riders in private rooms, hiring cooks, and having separate shoppers. That was everything."

Guercilena and his staff have been planning and preparing for 2021 for some time; although the 2021 Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans' Great Ocean Road Race were cancelled, much of the European calendar has been are expected to be implemented, learning from the problems overcome in.

"Next year's season is complicated, there may or may not be a vaccine. We have to be prepared to use everything that helped this year," Guercilena said.

"I am not only talking about my team and my country Italy, I am talking about the whole sport, including race organizers, riders, teams and fans. I learned how to do that this year, now I just need to have the courage to continue racing in 2021."

Guercilena admitted that he did not like the position of the EF pro cycling team at the Giro d'Italia or the letter calling for an early end to the race. He wants the various teams and officials in pro cycling to see other sports as rivals instead of continuing to compete against each other.

"Personal opinions are received in so many different ways by so many different people. We can all have different views, but we should not miss the chance to work together for the wider good of the sport and the wider good of the cycling businesses that support it," he warned.

"We must understand that cycling has significant sales, it moves millions; the COVID-19 pandemic revealed our weaknesses but also showed our strengths compared to other sports. If we turn against each other, we will continue with the usual situation of soccer and other sports taking over the global sports business and staying ahead of professional cycling.

." The world will eventually recover and rise from the COVID-19 epidemic. If we continue to unite and show the strength and beauty of our sport, we have a chance to emerge from this stronger than before."