a podium worth as much as the one won by Giacomo Serangeli Sunday at the Sauro Drei Memorial in Reda di Faenza. In fact, on the hills of Romagna, the Junior for UC Foligno achieved a 3rd place full of significance both on a personal and team level, definitively leaving behind the sternum injury suffered at the end of January in the Hoogerheide stage of the Cyclocross World Cup, which forced him to miss the first two months of the road season.
Once he returned to attaching the number to his back at the end of April, the Terni native born in 2007 he forged ahead in finding the right feeling with the rhythms and dynamics of competitions. The 6th place and the two top 20 arrivals in the first three releases of the year, all on high-level stages such as those of Turano di Massa, Bucine and Mercatale di Cortona, were a prelude to Sunday’s great exploit. For the entire 100 km of the race, Serangeli did not miss a beat compared to the group of the best, who gradually separated themselves along the 9 passages at the GPM in Via Sabbioni, the focal point of a route which at the end instead offered a flat, in-line section returning towards the finish line in Reda. A handful of 15 athletes then presented themselves for the decisive sprint, set in a peremptory manner by the all-Australian team of Team Veleka. Thanks to an excellent progression, the UC Foligno standard-bearer managed to make his way to the kangaroo wheel, finishing 3rd behind the winner Jack Clark and Maxwell Holgate. A podium of international scope therefore which further enhances the performance of an athlete already accustomed to competing with the best peers on the world scene in Cyclocross. After having rediscovered the joy of the podium, the objective will be to completely reconnect with that path which was abruptly interrupted with the cold shower of Hoogerheide, which came at the end of a winter campaign in which Serangeli had scored several successes and also a good number of appearances in blue shirt.
Never before has Reda’s result seemed liberating even at team level. The Juniores Foligno team in fact returned to the top 3 a year and a half after the top spot, signed by Francesco Vignini, at the Batignani Memorial in Reggello on 3 September 2022. A fast broken not by chance, given the good performances offered in this start of the season by the entire group directed by Sandro Settimi. The 8 square centered by Luca Laudi in Mentana last April 21st and the many appearances in the 20, marked with many different elements, certify the state of health of a team which, after having emptied the infirmary, has all it takes to go further during the spring. The company led by president Moreno Petrini can therefore rejoice at having rediscovered both its spearhead and for being back in vogue also with its own premier class.
