A beautiful sun and summer temperatures highlight the fun trails of the Alpicella Bike Park, the scene of the second round of the Superenduro season.
Source: press release
The Competition Ground
Will it dry? It will rain? These are the two main questions that hovered in the paddock area all weekend here in Calestano. The answer would come only with race day, but still everyone was tuned to the forecasts. Never like this time, on this terrain, the weather played a truly fundamental role in the result.
In the end it was "hero dirt", that perfect balance between consistency and humidity, that incredibly good condition in which making mistakes is almost impossible and seems to drive like heroes, the gift that this small town in Emilia Romagna, in the province has given us of Parma, looking for redemption after last year's mud.
With the grip problem behind them, the riders concentrated on choosing the lines that would give them the opportunity to maintain the pace in this endless sequence of curves and changes of direction along the 13km of the four special stages of the day.
With two special stages over 8 minutes each and about 30 minutes of total racing, the Calestano Superenduro was certainly a tough race that rewarded a clean and smooth ride, on fast sections alternating with more technical sections in counter-slope, steep and treacherous.
Today, thanks to the work of the Alpicella Bike Park guys and all the organizing staff of the event, Calestano is a place that boasts several tens of kilometers of trails dedicated to mountain biking but which at the same time represents a place where tranquility and the values of a small location emerge strongly.
The competition
Already in Sanremo it was perceived that the championship this year would be very hard fought, with several teams with riders in shape, capable of fighting for the title and many young people who appear in the first positions, ready to undermine the old foxes with more experience.
The Calestano race fully confirms this trend with many rookies and students at the start and 3 different winners on 4 special stages. To bring home the men's Open victory in the end was the most constant today, Nicola Casadei Team CMC Cycling Experience, winner of the 2 longest specials, 1 and 4, who moves into second position in the championship, only 20 points behind. Alex Lupato.
Second and third were the Lupato brothers, Team Cingolani, Denny and Alex, who were also rewarded by the consistency that has always kept them in the top positions. The real highlight of the day is the victory of PS3, the most technical, for the very fast nineteen year old Mirco Vendemmia, Team CMC Cycling Experience.
In the Women's Open, the New Zealander Raewyn Morrison of the Giant Factory Off-Road Team literally dominated the race, winning all 4 special stages and closing the race with a gap of almost 1 and a half minutes from Laura Rossin (Soul Cycles Racing Team) , second classified, who maintains the leadership of the circuit classification. Jessica Bormolini (GB Rifar Mondraker Asd) ends up in third position, fresh from Elite membership after she had raced among amateurs in Sanremo, a desired category change just to be able to run where there is competition.
Great battle also in the youth categories, with the two young promises of the Ancillotti Factory team, Andrea Garella and Francesco Mazzoni, both born in 2002, to give them a lot of reason just like in Sanremo. After winning a special each, this time Andrea had the best for less than 4 tenths! They both end up tied first in the overall standings. Third closes Alessandro Lani (asd zeroemezzo racing team).
In the men's Amateurs race the fastest was Giacomo Dodino (Team Marchisio Bici) ahead of Fabio di Renzo (Ancillotti Factory) and Giovanni D'Aroma (Soul Cycles Racing Team). In women, Megan Christine Chinburg (Raptors Bike asd) climbs on the top step of the podium in front of Casini Federica (asd Cicli Taddei) and Irene Savelli (Team dsb Comes Fristads Airoh Ion).
The Ebike race was dominated by Alessandro Bonarotti (Bikegarage), with the victory of all the special stages. Second Marcello Ghidini and third Alessandro Cavandoli, both of the Beltrami TSA Gravity Games team.
The statements
"In 2017 we placed a first pebble here in Calestano and this year a beautiful stone. As an organization we are very satisfied and I thank Gianluca Pinardi of Mangusta Bike Team and the trail builders of Alpicella Bike Park with whom we were able to do a level race but at the same time enhance the familiarity of this location.". Marco Santojanni organizer of the Calestano Superenduro.
“I'm very happy, I knew there were some very fast girls in the race and winning here is a great satisfaction. The ground was very slippery in several places, but both the bike and my guide worked and together we found the right feeling to be fast " Rea Morrison, winner of the Women's Open Category
“I am very happy, it was a somewhat unexpected victory. In the last few days I was struggling a bit during the tests. The weather was the great unknown. Today I tried to have as much fun as possible and a good result came out ”. Nicola Casadei, winner of the men's Open category
The curiosity
The winner of the 2017 edition of the Calestano Superenduro, Vittorio Gambirasio, today makes a mistake in his strategy and compromises his performance. He is certainly at ease on the special stages as demonstrated by the second position in PS1 and the victory in PS2, after the time control he no longer finds his compass and finishes fifth.
Let's be clear, at this level the fifth position means to have been very strong, but not enough or at least what is expected of the "champion"?
Last year we raced in extreme conditions with a lot of mud and the forecast was for rain even today, but that was not the case.
Thanks to the tiredness, the humid heat and the increasingly dry ground, Vittorio was probably no longer able to be fast with that set of mud tires, not very smooth, not very precise and certainly unsuitable.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d_KZgLqcEw&w=560&h=315]
