The city of Varese welcomed more than 1700 riders this past weekend with a very international field.
German Kerstin Brachtendorf scored the overall fastest female time in the time trial winning her 45-49 age group before Italian Elisa Parracone as winner of the F19-34 category and Eleonora Mele who was the fastest in the F40-44 group. The average speed of the winner was 40.1 km/h Fastest male on the 22km time trial was French Fabien Secondo (M19-34), former world champion in the discipline in an average speed of 46.35 km/h, 23 seconds faster than Italian Tommaso Donei, winner in the M35-39 and 24 seconds ahead of Belgian Filip Speybrouck (M45-49).
The weather on Sunday was announced to be worse with rainshowers making the roads completely wet in the hour before the start. Former topstars Ivan Basso, Maurizio Fondriest and Davide Cassani didn’t mind and pleased the public in the “friends” start right before the age groups who started with a 4 minute interval.
The fastest wave was the M19-34 with Matteo Cigala finally outsprinting Andrea Pisetta and Christian Balzi in a 9-men break at the end of the 120km granfondo. Landslides urged the organizers to make an update of the course prior to the weekend with the climb towards Alpe Tedesco partially being removed from the course.
First female in the granfondo was Italian Michela Gorini in a sprint before German Christina Rausch while Canadian Gabrielle Pilote-Fertin finishing overall third a minute later.
The mediofondo which counted as qualifying distance for all men over 60 and women over 50 had Giovanni Riccioni winning in the M60-64 age group while Tamara Rollini was the overall fastest female in the F50-54 category.
Given the short period, the results won’t count anymore for the World Championships of next week in Istocno Sarajevo.
