The European Champion won the Verona MTB International, the first event of the season, beating his teammate Luca Braidot, who marked his debut with the new colours with an excellent podium.
Source: Wilier press release
Avondetto managed to make the difference during the fourth of the 8 scheduled laps of the Verona circuit, quickly becoming uncatchable for all his opponents. Behind Braidot, after a less than perfect start, he returned to the leaders and detached Filippo Fontana right at the end.
"I was fine, after 3-4 laps I tried to test the resistance of my opponents and, when I saw that they couldn't keep up the pace, I went straight ahead pushing until the end - said Avondetto, who had already won this race in 2022 -. It was the ideal race to start the season, test the legs on a technical and nervous course, and it's nice to immediately unlock the score of victories. Now my mind is on the next goals".
Both Avondetto and Braidot will be at the start of the Albenga International next week, before leaving for the Cape Epic adventure in South Africa, from 16 to 23 March.
Meanwhile, in Puerto Rico, the young Canadian Ella MacPhee has also begun her season, having finished 2nd in the Tropical MTB Challenge last weekend and placing 3rd today in the XCC of the Puerto Rico MTB Cup.
MEN'S ELITE RANKING
1 AVONDETTO Simone | EL | WILIER-VITTORIA FACTORY TEAM 1h28:53.8
2 BRAIDOT Luca | EL | WILIER-VITTORIA FACTORY TEAM 1h29:47.3 +53,5
3 FONTANA Filippo | EL | CS CARABINIERI OLYMPIA CYCLES 1h30:01.2 +1:07.4
4 FOIDL Maximiliam | EL | KTM Factory MTB Team 1h31:35.2 +2:41.4
5 JANSSENS Arne | EL | PRIVATEER 1h33:26.7 +4:32.9
6 SIFFREDI Matteo | A | KTM – PROTEK – ELETTROSYSTEM 1h33:28.6 +4:34.8
7 BASSIGNANA Fabio | A | KTM – PROTEK – ELETTROSYSTEM 1h33:30.8 +4:37.0
8 BERTOLINI Gioele | EL | KTM – PROTEK – ELETTROSYSTEM 1h34:04.6 +5:10.8
9 BOCCHIO VEGA Emanuele | EL | KTM – PROTEK – ELETTROSYSTEM 1h34:19.6 +5:25.8
10 HUEZ Emanuele | EL | CS CARABINIERI CICLI OLYMPIA 1h35:39.5 +6:45.7
11 FOLCARELLI Antonio | EL | RACE MOUNTAIN -GM SPORT FOLCAR 1h35:43.3 +6:49.5
12 CAPOIA Alberto | EL | BCL TEAM 1h35:50.3 +6:56.5
13 PERUZZO Giulio | A | KTM – PROTEK – ELETTROSYSTEM 1h36:09.7 +7:15.9
14 BETTEO Marco | A | TEAM DREAM VENETO 1h36:19.3 +7:25.5
15 ZAVAN Martino | A | TEAM DREAM VENETO 1h37:02.0 +8:08.2
