Tenth places for Michele Gazzoli and Antonio Puppio in the route and time trial, respectively, of the Europeans of Alkmaar
European Cycling 2019
Background test under 23: Alkmaar-Alkmaar (138 km)
U23 Crono: Alkmaar-Alkmaar (22.4 km)
The Italian Michele Gazzoli finished tenth in the final round of the U23 European Cycling category held this Saturday in the Dutch town of Alkmaar. His tenth place is contextualized within a great performance of the Italian team, which hung the gold medal from the hand of Alberto Dainese, SEG cyclist and future rider of Team Sunweb.
Gazzoli, continental junior champion in 2017, had just participated with the Italian team in the second edition of the Adriatic Ionian Race, a race in which he signed an eleventh place in the last stage, with a final in Trieste.
Antonio Puppio, after a day of intense work in favour of his leaders, finished the long-distance race in 46th place. Days before, on Thursday, the Italian took part in the race against the clock, over 22.4 kilometres; a time trial in which he set the tenth best time, 49 seconds behind the Danish Johan Price-Pejtersen.
“I am very happy for the confidence that the coach put in me both for the road race and for the time trial. I am very grateful to the Kometa team for allowing me to take part in this race. I faced the time trial well, without mistakes. And in the online meeting I put myself completely at the disposal of the team and in the end we were able to achieve the victory”.
Luxembourger Michel Ries also took part in both events. In the time trial, the Grand-Ducal rider set the 34th best time, 2:04 behind the Danish gold medalist. On the road, Ries was not able to finish.
“The race was good for me,” said Ries. “The route has been a very dangerous and very fast race since the start and, unfortunately, I suffered a fall in the first lap and I was never able to return to the front, but for me the most important thing was not to take risks and train well for next week’s Tour del Porvenir”.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
