Thursday, July 28, 2016

Meron Teshome with great 2nd place on stage 11 at Tour of Qinghai Lake (UCI 2.HC)

After Meron has already showed the last two days with 2 times top 10 that he is in a promising shape, the whole team was motivated to step up with great results on today's stage. Knowing about the strength of the fast man from Eritrea, the team wanted to support Meron with no comprimise.

In the final of the stage the team led Meron out in a perfect position to start his sprint and he finished with a great performance only beaten by Jakub Mareczko from Italian Procontinental team Wilier Trestina. Marko Kump from World Tour team Lampre – Merida completed the podium on place 3, who already won 2 stages of this year's Tour of Qinghai Lake.

After taking this great result, Meron Teshome said with a big smile on his face: "today was a perfect day. The whole team comitted yesterday to work very hard to bring me in a good position and the guys did a great job. In the end I had the pressure to finalize the good work and to finish 2nd in such a big race with such great sprinters is just awesome".



National Elite Championship winners at Track Nationals


Friday, July 22, 2016

The guys from team STRADALLI – BIKE AID

At This year's race edition of Sibiu Cycling Tour, ranked 2.1. category in UCI calendar, led over a prologue and four stages with a lot of high climbing in the middle of Transylvanian mountains in Romania.
 The guys from STRADALLI – BIKE AID did a great job throughout the entire week and proofed their ability to act as a real competitive European top pro team.
On stage 1 it was Nikodemus Holler who took the place of the selected sprinter Patrick Lechner as he couldn't make it in the bunch to the finish line due to several technical issues , broken chain then after chasing back a flat front tire blow out on a fast decent . 
In the massive fast sprint Niko showed that he is a very smart pro racer and finished on 10th position not bad for a skinny GC guy next to the big sprinters.
The goal was to ride for Niko as a captain in the GC and the team showed that this should not only be a plan. As a 13 man break went away in the beginning of queen-stage number 2 over 213 Kilometers with a 15k finish to the top of a ski mountain , the gap increased rapidly as no team wanted to do the work of controlling the bunch. 
After the gap still increased and reached 11 Minutes, the guys from STRADALLI - BIKE AID took over the responsibility and chased the group down to six minutes at 40 Kilometers to go. But then a shock: crash! Niko Holler! His rear derailer is broken and also his knee injured! After a hard fight try back to the group and several times of stopping due to his pain, Nikodemus Holler finished in the last group and remained in the race with his 2 team mates helping to bring him slow but save.
All the hard work for nothing ?
No, he didn't want to let the work of his team mates being unpaid and fought back on stage 4 with another great 7th place. The whole team showed a good performance and the will to ride for his captain without a doubt. Only the crash has left a little scratch on a good picture of the week in Romania.




Monday, July 11, 2016

A letter from Angel David Rodriguez

Hi, for those of you that don't know me very well my name is Angel David Rodriguez, I am a 10 year old from Doral, Florida that love the sport of cycling. When you see this, I will be on my way to California, to compete on a Mountain Bike XC race for the National Title. My performance will be dedicated to all the kids in this World that like me are touched by the Autism Spectrum. On Wednesday about 4:30 pm pacific time, all of you can help me with your thoughts and prayers so we, together can make this happen.
Although I am well prepared mentally and physically by may coach Filippo Barbieri and I will be riding my trusty Stradalli 650 B AKA "The Beauty". Your wishes will be the extra boost needed to get the best result possible. For some of us "Autism is not a disability, it's just a different ability"