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 occupied the podium with (in strict first-second-third order) Chiara Consonni, Silvia Persico, and Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini, with Federica Venturelli in fourth. Fifth, aka "first of the others," was Giada Borghesi from BTC Lubiana Zhiraf.

Under a threat of rain that fortunately gave way to splendid Roman sunshine, 113 athletes started to tackle the 16 laps of the historic six-kilometer Caracalla circuit. Eager to live up to 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 made by them with the four aforementioned athletes together with Borghesi and Elisa Valtulini from Bepink (the team that triumphed here last year with Silvia Zanardi).

Chasing them were Argentina's Anabel Yapura (Komugi Grand Est), Gemma Sernissi from 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 from 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, with Tserakh acting as a stopper in favor of her teammate Borghesi.
But up front, there was no contest. In the third-to-last lap, Eleonora Gasparrini launched a solo attack, and in the final lap, she was caught by Persico and Consonni, creating a splendid triple parade finish, while behind them Venturelli finished ahead of Borghesi. Two minutes later, Valtulini crossed the line in sixth and Tserakh won the bunch sprint.

After two years ago, when they raced for Valcar, they finished in the top two positions, the great friends Persico and Consonni switched roles this year: "It really is a... Liberation for me - admits the beaming '99-born from Bergamo - because finally a great result has come after a series of placings. What an emotion 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 highlighted after the ceremony "the beauty of a race that was hard-fought from the start, in which the most anticipated team lived up to expectations by keeping the situation under control. It was not easy to accomplish the mission in this way, so congratulations to UAE. And being on stage to award athletes I have always followed and hadn't seen for a long time is a moment of true joy."

Finally, the 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 rivals in difficulty and launched many quality U23 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