UAE TEAM ADQ

Excellent debut of the UAE Development Team at the Giro del Mediterraneo in Rosa (Italy). In fact, in the first stage of this competition, Irish national champion Lara Gillespie and young Italian Federica Venturelli took second and third in the final sprint.

The UAE Development Team athletes competed with personality and followed the race plan that called for a sprint finish, because the 106.7 km course (start Frattamaggiore, finish Terzigno) was flat with a few small climbs.

During the race there were unforeseen incidents, because Karolina Kumięga, Federica Piergiovanni and Federica Venturelli were involved in falls fortunately not severe.

Despite these mishaps, the athletes directed by Davide Gani and Giuseppe Lanzoni executed the planned race plan to perfection and in the final sprint took a double podium behind Giada Borghesi.

This is a great news for UAE Development Team, because this was the first podium of 2024 for both Lara Gillespie and Federica Venturelli. For Federica Venturelli this is also the first podium in the elite category.

"Today the team was amazing," said Lara Gillespie, "we were a bit unlucky with a lot of falls for some girls, but we controlled the race very well. Personally I felt very strong, I am disappointed not to have won. Federica Venturelli launched me at 100 meters, maybe I could have gone sooner. I was a little closed at the barriers and I didn't make it to win. But I'm happy because the legs are good and the teamwork was great."

The race went according to plan," Federica Venturelli explained, "we tried to make a good but not excessive pace on the climbs to bring Lara to the sprint and we succeeded. On the downhill the road was wet and I made a stupid fall but, fortunately, without consequences. In the second part of the race we controlled the situation and blocked all breakaway attempts; meanwhile when the situation was more calm, I also changed bikes as a result of the fall. At the last 2 km I put myself in front of the group to control the situation and bring Lara to the sprint. Everything was perfect until the last 200 meters with me first and her on my wheel. Unfortunately, in the sprint she got locked at the barriers and had to stop pedaling; she re-launched the sprint and almost managed to win. I got to the line keeping the pace at which I was pulling and managed to finish third because there was a gap behind us. I had good feelings, too bad only for the last few hundred meters. We are ready to try again to win in the coming days."