Six hours, twenty minutes and twenty -four seconds. When yesterday (Sunday 29 June) Annalisa Prato crossed the finish line of Piazza Galimberti in Cuneo by Queen of the Gran Fondo de la Fausto Coppi Generali, the speaker repeated her twice the time in which her dream became reality. The twenty -six -year -old from Cuneo, athletic preparation, registered for the Officine Mattio Cycling Club, has not spoken of effort, joy, leg, breath and heart, but of emotions, and his broken voice was proof of this. “Only Cuneoi can know what this race means.” She knows, and not since yesterday: her first Coppi races her in 2015, when she was still a minor, then out of the ranking. Then he conquered two wins in the Middle Fund in 2018 and 2019 and two podiums in the Gran Fondo – Second square in 2021, third in 2024. In 2023, in the pits for the aftermath of a fall at the Marcialonga, in Trentino, he supported the friend Samantha Arnaudo passing a bottle to the Valmala refreshment; Last year and Sunday the roles reversed, with Arnaudo on the roadside for the consequences of the bad accident suffered in a race in El Salvador in March 2024, when he had just started his career in the Elite world.
The climbs on the mountains of the house
After a difficult 2024, this year Prato approached Coppi strong of the successes within Sardinia, in that Marcialonga with which he made peace, and in the Blockhaus Marathon. «These have climbed that I know like my pockets; I know what rhythm I have to keep. I always did the race on myself, I didn’t know how much margin I had on the pursuers ». Prato remained alone already on the Sampeyre hill, and found a small group of runners to join only in the final part of the climb of Madonna del Colletto. He came with them on arrival, where he discovered that Iride Bertone was behind him, one of the souls of the Community Night Experience Ride, and above all a athlete she trained. That’s why yesterday for Prato was a perfect Sunday, with a strongly desired victory and great satisfaction from a professional point of view. The first thanks went to his parents – “Without them I could not afford to train like this” -, the second to his team, and there was a thought for Arnaudo, nutritionist, with whom he shares the Health & Performance project.
On July 6, the Sestriere Colle delle Finestre
In 2023, for Arnaudo, Fausto Coppi-Marathon of the Dolomites was a brace, Prato instead on Sunday 6 July will be at the start of the Granfondo Sestriere with the windows, then, after a period of unloading, the haute Route Alpes will prepare seven stages from Megève to Nice (France) from 24 to 30 August. Cuneo will be the home of the fifth stage on Thursday 28 August, departing from Briançon, and departure of that of the aftermath, with Meta Nizza. 800 kilometers, almost 19 thousand meters of positive altitude difference: music for the ears of lawn.
