At the Liberation, a fierce Colpack team: Bevilacqua "launches" Persico and Della Lunga

If we talk about Italy, the Under 23 category, and teams that bring cyclists into professionalism, the standout name of the last decade is the Colpack team. Current full name: Colpack Ballan CSB. World Tour riders like Ganna, Consonni, Baroncini, Ayuso, Tiberi, Piccolo, Masnada, Covi, Bagioli, were launched by the Orobic team led by patron Giuseppe Colleoni.

A team like this cannot fail to be at the forefront of the Gran Premio della Liberazione. In 2021, the year of the "resurrection" of the Caracalla race signed by Claudio Terenzi, team Colpack triumphed with Michele Gazzoli, while in 2017 they won with Seid Lizde. "The Liberazione is a very important classic in the Under 23 category, whoever wins it knows they have a guaranteed place among the professionals," says Antonio Bevilacqua, president of Colpack Ballan CSB. "I'm attached to it also because as an athlete I raced it in 1979, finishing eighth, and as team manager of UC Bergamasca in the early 2000s I had a win and a second place, respectively with David Garbelli and Graziano Gasparre. And then of course the two victories with Colpack. Gazzoli's win two years ago was really wanted and excellently prepared, but unfortunately last year's edition was unlucky: we had a lot of bad luck in the early stages of the race and couldn't get back with the best. This year we absolutely want to make up for it!”

The fierce diamonds of Colpack Ballan CSB, directed from the team car not only by Bevilacqua himself but also by Gianluca Valoti, Flavio Miozzo, and Giuseppe Dileo (whose sister Rossella is a manager and the soul of the team) will be two 2001-born riders with excellent potential: Davide Persico from Bergamo (Cene) and Francesco Della Lunga from Arezzo (Indicatore). After participating in the last two GP Liberazione, helping Gazzoli win in 2021 and having to retire early in 2022, this fast tandem is ready to make their mark in 2023. On February 25, Persico and Della Lunga christened the opening day of the Italian U23 calendar as prophets in their own land: one won the Coppa San Geo, the other simultaneously took the Firenze-Empoli. In Rome, they will be the carriages of the Colpack train: who will go in search of personal glory will be decided by their condition on that April 25th that is gradually approaching.

A curiosity for each.
Davide, who on Sunday just missed his second win of the season in Istria, is the younger brother of Silvia Persico, one of the top Italian cyclists at the moment, world bronze medalist at Wollongong 2022. Silvia has a special relationship with the capital and the races organized by Terenzi Sport Eventi, having won last year's Liberazione Donne and two months ago the Italian Cyclocross Championships in Ostia Antica: will Davide have the same inclination?
As for Francesco, a compatriot of former professional Rinaldo Nocentini, he had started a very demanding degree course: to become a pilot. However, he decided to focus on cycling, the activity that could become his life's work. For him, as for all participants in the Under 23 "Spring World Championship."