18 Mar 2024

Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, challenging training ground in the Romagna hinterland

Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali (2.1)

19th - 23th March

Leaving behind the week of the Italian spring Classics, for Team Polti Kometa a Romagna week opens up. Or rather, an international Coppi and Bartali week! A fixed appointment for the Italian ProTeam, for whom this five-day competition constitutes an important stage not only in the approach to the Giro d’Italia, but also in the growth path of its riders.

In a startlist that balances teams of World Tour, Professional, and Continental categories, Polti Kometa brings a perfect lineup for a race that, although taking place in a corner of Italy famous for beach holidays, enhances a hilly hinterland that serves as a tough cycling training ground. There is a reliable climber like Paul Double, there is a former winner of the KOM jersey at the Coppi&Bartali like Andrea Garosio, there is another specialist like Erik Fetter, other valuable domestiques like Alex Martín and the survivors of Milano-Torino and Sanremo, German Gomez and Diego Sevilla, not to forget Javier Serrano returning after the crash in Rwanda last month.

Except for tomorrow’s inaugural day in Pesaro, a bit less challenging with fewer mountains and a shorter distance, all subsequent stages could decide the overall classification. In the 2nd stage the route will include five ascents to Sogliano al Rubicone, including the finish on a 300-meter vertical ramp. The 3rd stage (partly retracing the Grand Départ of Tour de France in Italy) will go… abroad: among the five climbs of decreasing difficulty, the Republic of San Marino will be crossed, climbing mount Titano, before returning to Italian territory and descending to Riccione. In the 4th stage, the Monticino hill will be covered five times, in Brisighella. A quintuple circuit, even tougher than the previous one, will also be ridden in the last stage, on Saturday in Forlì, with a grand finale at the Glauco Servadei velodrome.

“Stronger opponents and a challenging profile, without a real queen stage, with uphills not long but continuous,” comments sports director Giovanni Ellena, who explains: “For us, it’s a great incentive to participate in this race, in which we’ll aim for the GC with Double and we have Serrano as a card in case of a sprint. I also send a hug to Andrea Pietrobon who fell towards the end of an excellent Milan-San Remo, we’ll live up to the visibility that he and his teammates have earned.”

Garosio: “Just enough time to recover from a good Tour of Taiwan and here I am ready for the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, happy with my condition and eager to be a valuable support and to seize any personal chances.”