Maniago. BMW Brand Ambassador Alessandro Zanardi (ITA) has
extended his collection of para-cycling medals with a bronze and a
silver medal. At the weekend, the 2018 UCI Para-cycling Road World
Championships took place on Zanardi’s home soil, at Maniago in
Italy. Zanardi – a ten-times world champion in para-cycling –
competed in three races: the individual time-trial on Friday, the
road race on Saturday and the team-relay on Sunday.
Huge crowds came to Maniago to cheer for the athletes who faced hot
temperatures even in the evenings when the races were held. In
Friday’s individual time trial, Zanardi finished third behind Oscar
Sanchez (USA) and Tim De Vries (NED) to secure the bronze medal. In
Saturday’s road race, the Italian once again proved that giving up is
not an option for him; he was again in contention for a podium
position but on the final lap became a victim of a crash with several
athletes involved. One competitor crashed into the barrier on a tricky
corner and bounced back onto the racing line, hitting another athlete.
Zanardi could not avoid them and then was hit from behind. As a
result, his hand-bike was severely damaged. Zanardi had a spare front
wheel with him in the assistance car. He stopped to change the front
wheel, however had no spare available for the damaged right rear
wheel. He nevertheless continued the race with the damaged rear wheel
and eventually reached the finish in eighth position.
The world championships concluded with the team-relay on Sunday
evening. Zanardi competed in the Italian nation team with his fellow
countrymen Paolo Cecchetto and Luca Mazzone. From start to finish,
they had a thrilling battle with the USA team, and in the end, missed
the gold medal only by a few centimetres, winning silver behind the US squad.
“It was a fantastic event”, said Zanardi. “I will take home with me
the incredible enthusiasm of that huge crowd that really surprised me.
I’ve been competing all my life in different sports disciplines but I
never felt anything like this. For sure they applauded for all the
athletes but they all had a very special shout for me and really
pushed me to get a good result. This time, we won a silver medal in
the team-relay and a bronze medal in the time-trial. To a certain
extent I had some misfortune, especially in the road race but I have
to admit that my opponents were really strong and much better prepared
than I thought.”
Zanardi now travels to Vallelunga (ITA), where he will continue to
prepare for his DTM guest start at Misano (ITA) in three weeks’ time
and spend two days of testing with his modified BMW M4 DTM this week.