Area Zero D’Amico: A Fantastic Experience on the Roads of Slovenia
Now they are looking forward to the Giro dell’Appennino and the Italian Championships
Elia Viviani (Cannondale) won the fourth and last stage that arrived in Novo Mesto, wrapping up the Tour de Slovenie that was captured by Portugal’s Tiago Machado (NetApp). Area Zero D’Amico, the all-Italian continental team managed by Ivan De Paolis and Andrea Tonti, has come out of this test even more mature, determined and motivated to take on new challenges.
“For our guys the Tour de Slovenie was definitely an important experience on an international level,” explains team manager Andrea Tonti. “We got the chance to measure ourselves against teams and riders of the highest level, as proven by the names of the winners of the stages and the final classification, all high calibre athletes, for example Michael Matthews, who had already worn the pink jersey in the 2014 Giro d’Italia. Although we didn’t have many memorable achievements we are satisfied with the team’s overall performance. Yesterday in the hardest stage, with the climbing arrival at Kralji, Simone Petilli came close to capturing the jersey for best young rider, closing out second right behind the Brit Simon Yates (Orica Green Edge), not bad for a 20 year old in his first year among the pros. Stefano Tonin also did well in the first stage, breaking away for several kilometres. With Andrea Pasqualon we could have played our hand for victory in the final sprint but unfortunately again today he got a little closed in during the bunch sprint and wasn’t able to express himself to the fullest.”
“The team is coming away well from this Slovenian experience,” continues Paolo Santello, coach and trainer for Area Zero D’Amico. “These last few weeks the guys have been working intensely; before racing here we had a very profitable week of retreat in Bormio. This is going to propel us with confidence and optimism towards our next competitions, which are the Giro dell’Appennino, already this Tuesday, and especially the Italian Championships, road and time trials, in Cles, in Trentino, Val di Non, on Saturday, June 28th and Sunday, June 29th, respectively. These are the key events for our team in the first part of the season.”
24/06 Giro dell’Appennino (ITA) UCI 1.1
Riders: Paolo Ciavatta, Silvio Giorni, Gianluca Leonardi, Andrea Pasqualon, Charly Petelin, Simone Petilli, Marco Tecchio, Stefano Tonin.
D.s.: Massimo Codol.
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