Pietermaritzburg. The second competition for BMW Brand
Ambassador Alessandro Zanardi (ITA) at the 2017 UCI Para-cycling
Road World Championships in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, turned
out to be a real thriller. The decider of the 60.7 kilometre road
race came in an exciting sprint to the finish. In the end, Zanardi
claimed second place and the silver medal – crossing the line wheel
to wheel with the winner, and new world champion, Tim de Vries
(NED). It was so close that the gap was indicated as “00.00 seconds”
in the final classification.
After winning his ninth para-cycling world title in the time trial on
Thursday, Zanardi tackled the MH5 category (men’s handcycle) road race
on Saturday. The athletes took on ten laps of a 6.07 kilometre circuit
through the streets of Pietermaritzburg. The nine-time world champion
and de Vries adopted a clever strategy, riding with a group of several
athletes for most of the distance and then attacking at the end of the
final lap. Before the final corner, Zanardi was lying in third
position while de Vries was fourth. With the finish line in sight, the
top four started a nail-biting final sprint for the world title. In
the end, de Vries crossed the line only centimetres ahead of second
placed Zanardi. The overall race time was 1:50:11 hours.
“After all, to finish second is a great result. I think we
put on a great show and you have to take it, it is as simple as it is.
So I am very happy,” said Zanardi. “I knew I was very strong in the
last corner and if I could enter it in third place, leaving a little
gap in front of me, then I could go through the corner really fast and
easily catch the two guys in front and pull away a bit from Tim de
Vries, who I knew was my strongest opponent. Everything went exactly
as I planned until the two guys in front backed out. At that point I
was stuck behind and it was far too early to go into the final sprint.
That allowed Tim to come back to us very easily and then at that point
he was in the best position because when I started my sprint, he was
right behind me and then he got me in the very, very last metres.”
“But it was a very good race,” Zanardi continued. “I think overall I
was at least as strong as Tim and sometimes it works for you and
sometimes it works for others. But to come home with a silver medal,
after such an interesting battle, is a good result. Tim won a great
title today and hats off to him, but next time I will make his life as
hard as I can again.”
Tomorrow, Sunday (3rd September), Zanardi will
compete in his third and final competition of this year’s UCI
Para-cycling Road World Championships, the team relay, of which he and
the Italian national team are the reigning world champions.