It will be an historic weekend for Cittadella andall of Veneto, ready to host the first edition of the Gravel World Championship on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 October. An event that will bring in Italy the best athletes in the world, both as regards the offroad movement and road specialists: Peter Sagan, Mathieu Van der Poel, Pauline Ferrand Prevot, Zdenek Stybar and Greg Van Avermaet have already confirmed their presence.
Among them there will also be Eva Lechner: thanks to the victory at the end of August in the seventh stage of the Gravel World Series in Houffalize (in the photo, Eva on the podium) the Trinx Factory Team’s athlete have earned the pass for the Worlds.
«In my career I have already participated in over 30 world championships, but this will be special», says the champion from Bolzano, who will compete wearing the Trinx jersey. «It will be exciting to participate in the first Worlds in the history of this discipline, moreover in Italy and not so far from home. After Varese 2008 on the road, Livigno 2005 and the two editions in Val di Sole, this will be my fifth time in Italy, in three different specialties».
Eva will start at 12:00 (live on Eurosport from 14:00). A 140 km route awaits her, with 700 meters of altitude difference: the race has 32% unpaved roads, 24% hard gravel, 1% cobbles, 10% hard surface and 31% asphalt.
«I made a recon last Saturday, o provato sabato scorso, when the track was wet and slippery; in those conditions, the first 30 kilometers become technical; from the 35th km the race will be on very fast cycle paths, while the last 20 km presents some more difficulties. If it were to be a dry race, I expect an average of over 30km/h».
In addiction to prepare the challenge for the rainbow jersey, in last ten days Trinx Factory has proved itself on two different specialties, collecting great results.
Giorgia Marchet, who will race the Salamina Mtb Race in Greece the next week, won the 21st Trofeo Tra Livenza e Malgher.
In Cadoneghe, the U19 Valentina Corvi achieved the Trofeo Triveneto Cyclocross first round; at the start of this race Lucia Bramati too, who finished third among the Women’s Elite (Lucia in action in Alessandro Billiani’s photo - credit Treviso Mtb).
« We are lucky to have a company behind us that guarantees us a great support, so we can try our hand at all these three disciplines, which require different specifications», confirms Luca Bramati, squad’s sports director. «Although similar, gravel requires a different bicycle frame than cyclocross, with a variation of geometry to make the bike more comfortable».
On the other hand, in cyclocross and mtb the priority is the pure performance. «Exactly. And with the chinese headquarter we are already working to develop the new Trinx frame for cross country. The goal is to equip our athletes and those who want to buy Trinx bicycles with an extremely fast and reactive bike, suitable for tackling the increasingly demanding and technical Xco tracks».
