Mauro Cottone, Presentation of the i.idro DRAIN-Bianchi Team, the twenty-third season kicks off
The Bianchi MTB team was presented in Bergamo. The team chaired by Felice Gimondi is thus preparing to begin its twenty-third season. A real record, and not just in mountain biking. After the successes that characterized the 2013 season, above all the Under 23 World Cup won by Gerhard Kerschbaumer in South Africa, few news and many confirmations.
The most striking novelty is the change of name, from TX Active-Bianchi to i.idro DRAIN-Bianchi, to support the international team, in addition to Bianchi, there is always Italcementi.
The roster of athletes is slimmer than in the past. Seven bikers in all, four of which are elite and three are juniors.
The spearhead of the team led by Massimo Ghirotto is always the South Tyrolean Kerschbaumer, Under 23 World Champion, who this year moved into the elite category. A year, therefore, certainly difficult for Gerhard who, in any case, already from last year, when he was still Under 23, he began to run in the World Cup among the elites, also achieving excellent placings, such as fifth place in Vallnord.
Joining him in the international cross country season will be Alexander Gehbauer, a young Austrian who, despite being in his first year among the elite and also having had some physical problems, achieved four victories in 2013, including the Austrian title.
Leonardo Paez and Tony Longo will form the duo for the granfondo and marathon races. In 2013 the Colombian achieved 12 victories between Italy (with an encore in the Sellaronda Hero), Peru and Mexico, embellishing his palmares with the gold medal at the XCM World Championships in Kirchberg (Austria). Seven wins for Tony Longo, who will present himself at the start of the new season with the Italian Marathon champion jersey won last September in Milo, Sicily.
The junior team is made up of three athletes, directed by Andrea Ferrero: the juniors Chiara Teocchi (tricolor in cyclo-cross in January) and Giorgio Rossi (Italian cyclo-cross champion and cross country 2013) and the student Katia Moro.
The President of the team, Felice Gimondi, explained the team's seasonal objectives: «It will be hard to repeat the results of 2013, also because Kerschbaumer passes the category and it will be difficult to think that he is already super competitive. We hope, however, that he and Gehbauer can finish in the top five in one of the major competitions: Europeans, World Cups, World Cups. The good level of our team is confirmed by Paez and Longo, who have already established themselves at the highest level in the Marathons. With Paez we are aiming for a medal at the world championships, with Longo repeating the great results of last season. Attention also to our young people: Teocchi and Moro are girls potentially destined to enter the world elite. And Rossi is one born to win: once the injury is over, he will return to the top. He has great numbers ».
