UAE dominance at the Coati Women's Liberation, parade Consonni-Persico-Gasparrini and Venturelli 4th

The Gran Premio della Liberazione, organized for the fourth year by Claudio Terenzi's team, opened this morning with the women's race, sponsored by Salumi Coati and this year elevated to category 1.1: it was a celebration for the highly anticipated UAE team, which completely filled the podium with (in strict first-second-third order) Chiara Consonni, Silvia Persico, and Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini, with Federica Venturelli fourth. Fifth, aka "first of the others," was Giada Borghesi of BTC Lubiana Zhiraf.

Under a threat of rain that fortunately gave way to splendid Roman sunshine, 113 athletes started to face the 16 laps of the historic six-kilometer Caracalla circuit. Eager to meet expectations and avoid surprises, the team led by Davide Arzeni immediately took the lead and blocked every attack attempt. Until the attack, exactly halfway through the race, was launched by them with the four aforementioned athletes together with Borghesi and Elisa Valtulini of Bepink (the team that triumphed here last year with Silvia Zanardi).

Chasing them were Argentina's Anabel Yapura (Komugi Grand Est), Gemma Sernissi of K2, and Afghan Yulduz Hashimi, one of the girls from the WCC team under the aegis of the International Federation. Kept at a safe distance by the leading six, the chasers became five 30 km from the finish, when Yapura was caught while veteran Rasa Leleivyte (Aromitalia Vaiano), Beatrice Rossato (Isolmant Premac Vittoria), and Belarusian Hanna Tserakh joined the group to act as a stopper in favor of teammate Borghesi.
But up front there was no contest. In the third-to-last lap, Eleonora Gasparrini broke away solo, and in the final lap she was caught by Persico and Consonni, setting up a splendid triple parade finish, while behind them Venturelli finished ahead of Borghesi. Two minutes later, Valtulini finished sixth and Tserakh won the group sprint.

After two years ago, when they raced for Valcar, they finished in the top two positions, great friends Persico and Consonni switched roles this year: "It's really a... Liberation for me - admits the beaming '99-born from Bergamo - because finally a great result has come after a series of placings. What a thrill to win in Rome alongside family and loved ones! I want to thank the whole team for the great work that made all this possible, including the Development squad members. We managed to make the selection we wanted and created a gap, living up to expectations. I feel really good and I hope this victory is an important step in a special year (it's the Olympic year and in Paris Chiara will be competing on the blue track, ed.)."

For Gasparrini, the well-deserved combativity award dedicated to the memory of Mario Carbutti, historic owner of Cicli Lazzaretti shop and one of the main promoters of the women's race. Awarding the women's podium were UCI honorary vice president Renato Di Rocco, event patroness Marta Bastianelli, and Lazio regional FCI president Maurizio Brilli.

Bastianelli herself emphasized after the ceremony "the beauty of a race that was hard-fought from the start, in which the most anticipated team managed to live up to expectations and control the situation. It wasn't easy to complete the mission in this way, so congratulations to UAE. And being on stage to award athletes I've always followed and hadn't seen in a while is a moment of true joy."

Finally, women's road cycling national coach Paolo Sangalli: "A women's Liberazione that highlighted the technical gap between a World Tour team and the Continentals, but at the same time the fundamental commitment of the latter who did their utmost to put the more highly rated opponents in difficulty and launched many quality Under riders who also showed themselves today."

During the day, race highlights and the official interview with Chiara Consonni will be available on the Gran Premio Liberazione social channels.

PHOTO STEFANO SPALLETTA

HERE the complete results