Casella, 30/06/2024 – Umbria is great at the Italian Junior Road Championships with Mattia Proietti Gagliardoni. In Casella, the 2007-born athlete from Assisi, competing with the regional team jersey, came within a whisker of the tricolor jersey, taking 2nd place on the podium at the end of a race that was as expected challenging and dominated by the home team’s Lorenzo Finn (Liguria).
Legs but also head characterized the performance of the Umbrian standard bearer, who was able to interpret with clarity and character a test that, with the 8.5 km climb towards Crocefieschi to be tackled twice in the finale, was well suited to climbers and cross-country athletes. His reading skills emerged in particular in the split that occurred about 80 km from the finish line, when Proietti Gagliardoni was quick to join an attempt of 25 units that had formed between the Pratolungo climb and the subsequent descent. A full-bodied action that for the entire central phase of the race risked taking off definitively, with the group that, driven above all by the Ligurian selection, reacted decisively only at the foot of the first of the two climbs towards Crocefieschi. Along the ramps of the GPM Proietti Gagliardoni remained in the lead together with Ivan Toselli (Lazio), Michele Bicelli (Lombardy), David Zanutta (Friuli Venezia-Giulia), who were joined by Lorenzo Finn (Liguria) and Roberto Capello (Piedmont) from the main group. On the flat stretch halfway up the dive towards Casella, it was Finn, the number 1 favourite on the eve, who took off alone, quickly taking off from the rest of the leaders. Once he understood that he was playing for silver, the Assisi native managed his strength perfectly, firing all the remaining cartridges in the final portion of the second climb of Crocefieschi. The dry percussion unleashed allowed the Umbrian, not yet 17 years old, to leave the rest of the group at the post and to fly in turn towards a well-deserved second place, conquered with a delay of 2’28” on an overflowing Finn and with an advantage of just under 30” over the third-placed Zanutta.
A weighty medal for both the individual and the entire regional Junior team, back on the tricolor podium just 2 years after Edoardo Burani’s exploit, always silver in the Cherasco event. Results that testify to the praiseworthy ability of the Umbrian cycling movement to produce talents like Proietti Gagliardoni, registered since this season with the Tuscan team of Team Franco Ballerini but grown between 2021 and 2023 in the ranks of the Unione Ciclistica Foligno. However, it is worth noting the performance of the entire group led in Liguria by the Regional Technician Eros Capecchi and the Road Collaborator Sergio Spagliccia, with Luca Laudi (32nd), Giacomo Serangeli (39th), Francesco Cornacchini (85th) and Tommaso Francescangeli (not at his best physically and forced to retire) who honored the representative jersey to the best of their ability, all demonstrating that they can be worth a stage of such prestige.
Mattia Proietti Gagliardoni: “This medal is really worth a lot. I needed a result like this after a month of June in which I had never been able to express myself as I wanted. Today, however, I felt like I was in my best form and I knew that anticipating would be essential for our team. Once in the breakaway, I stayed more covered than others, waiting for the last two climbs. Once Finn was back, you could feel that he had a different pace than us and so I preferred not to overdo it and instead focus everything on the silver. It’s always nice to race for your region and having achieved such a result with the Umbria jersey on my shoulders makes me even more proud and happy”.
Eros Capecchi: “First of all, I want to applaud the team as a whole, because all the guys showed great legs, a great desire to do well and also a great willingness to follow our directions and our advice. What I like to emphasize about Mattia is above all the intelligence and maturity with which he interpreted the race. For a first year like him, it is not at all trivial to be able to read the decisive phases and at the same time make certain decisions. We must also consider that we measured ourselves against a superlative opponent like Finn. Many people after the finish line told us that we were the first of the humans and I also think that we really achieved the best possible result. Today’s performance only confirms how good we thought of this group”
