Superenduro PRO 1: Sestri Levante, Sunday Racing
With the first two stages out of the way yesterday, today racers faced a much bigger day on the bikes and three stages - with the longest being over 8 minutes long for the top men. Marco Milivinti and Valentina Macheda held the overnight leads, but who would be victorious when the dust settled?
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 Superenduro has literally taken over the heart of the town this weekend. There is no more space left on the beach for children to play football like they were on Thursday, it's race day and parking is more important for today. |
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| 400 or so bikes, ready for racing this morning. |
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| We tracked down Nicola Casadei this morning - his crash yesterday in the street stage was a big one, there are sticthes under that bandages. It turns out his is a former protege of DH legend Roberto Vernassa, but walked away from the sport for a few years after having political problems with the Italian cycling federation - he lives in the tiny principality of San Marino, which isn't entirely Italy... Either way, he's back now and we can't wait to see how he gets on through the rest of the season. He's one to watch for sure. |
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| One of the biggest changes to Superenduro this year is the running order. Now the women leave before the men, something the EWS is doing too this year, which is a great move to ensure the women's race gets covered, because when you are chasing after the top men to report a race, you have to sacrifice shooting everything behind them. With the women in front you can now chase the top men and cover the women's race. |
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| Laura Rossin lives close by in Genova, so one of her friends dropped in today to come and do the climb up to the first stage of the day with her. |
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| The climb up to the stages today took riders up the winding road of San Bernardo (no, not the famous alpine pass). Cut down from four to three stages this year, the loop was still 40km today, with around 1,000m of climbing. |
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| Fourth today can't be how last years women's champion, Laura Rossin, wanted to start her title defense. |
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| I've known Valentina Macheda since 2011. This is the second year in a row she has taken second here in Sestri and she was not happy about it, she could taste the victory... When I first met her she was happy to complete one of these races, so watching her growth from competitor to frontrunner is simply impressive. |
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| Third this weekend for the defending champion, Manuel Ducci. He admits that he was not able to ride at 100% this weekend, he puts his form at 30%, but was only just edged out of the stage win on the fifth stage today - the longest and toughest stage of the weekend. If he finds those 70% he says are missing right now, his chances of retaining his title are looking good. |
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| Overnight leader, Marco Milivinti, picked up where he left off this morning, putting in strong rides on the morning stages to retain his lead as the positions swapped around behind him. |
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| Alex Lupato looks like his winter training has been good, but he didn't have quite enough to overtake Marco Milivinti's overnight lead, settling for a solid second place before he jets off the Chile for the EWS this week. |
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| Denny Lupato doesn't seem to have had any luck at all this weekend, a puncture on stage four finished his race.He wasn't alone, more than a few riders were claimed by the rocks here in Sestri, whether it was punctures, derailleurs or crashes. |
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| Looking this aggressive on the bike goes a long way to explaining why Nicola Casadei was able to put in the ride he did this weekend - clawing his way back up the running order to make up places lost in his crash yesterday,despite constant pain from his injured hand. It was enough for a fifth place finish, which would have been a great result, if it wasn't for the fact that he has the speed to be further up the results sheet. |
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| Sand + loose rocks + a touch of fatigue on the long stages here... |
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| On the fourth and fifth stages, riders dropped through the scrub on loose, rocky tracks back down into the town. |
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| If you had a non-serious mechanical, on the fourth stage you could choose the elegant option of running through the streets of the town, with your bike at your side, trying to get back to the pits in time for your time check and get it all repaired to get back out and finish the race. |
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| After the first two stages riders had a quick time check in the pits, then it was back up into the hills for the fifth and final stage of the weekend. |
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| Todays men's winner - unbeatable in Sestri, Marco Milivinti. |
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| Taking a moment to let a victory sink in. I have to admit, this is twice this weekend I've been caught by surprise, I don't even have a photo of Pauline from on the race track as she was dead-last in the women's running order, but she put in a blinding ride this weekend and smoked all of the established women in the series. |
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| Marco's girlfriend was the first to congratulate him as he crossed the finish line. Last year he put in some strong rides, but asking him what the difference has been, he explained that he's stepping away from DH a little and focusing his training more on enduro. |
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| What a difference a year makes. It is just over a year since Peter Mlinar burst into our attention with some stunning rides, but 2014 hasn't opened well for him and he was off the pace this weekend and suffered a couple of punctures to compound his woes. |
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Does anybody know where one can find the trail maps of this races so one can go and ride them off race?
I was looking for a good vacations spot anyway.