CYCLING – Alessandro Borgo capped off an excellent first part of the season for the Bahrain Victorious Development Team with victory at the prestigious Gent-Wevelgem U23.
The Italian all-rounder triumphed in a four-man sprint after a selective race that had gone over the Monteberg and Kemmelberg climbs.
This is the first year Cycling Team Friuli has been fully integrated into Team Bahrain Victorious, now operating as ‘Development’ Team.
After optimal winter preparation that included time with the WorldTour team in Altea in Spain, and two camps in Friuli, the team started the season with confidence, which was soon backed up with results. From day one, the team have been consistently in the mix at every race.
Beginning at the Tour of Rhodes, Greece, the team faced some setbacks due to illness, but still managed to perform well on several stages, and take home the mountains jersey with Jakob Omrzel.
In addition the first month of racing produced top-five finishes from Alessandro Borgo at ‘Popolarissima’ and Thomas Capra at the Youngster Coast Challenge U23.
March ended with a first UCI win of the season, as Žak Eržen (coming from the WT team) won his home race, the GP Adria Mobil.
April was packed with Italian U23 races and two challenging stage races in France: the Circuit des Ardennes and the Tour de Bretagne. In each, we had at least one rider finish in the top 10. The sole exception was at the Trofeo San Vendemiano U23, where Alessandro Borgo sprinted to 11th; the tiniest of margins preventing victory as the breakaway narrowly made it all the way.
Omrzel’s second place at the Giro del Belvedere U23 and Seth Dunwoody’s stage win on the final day of the Circuit des Ardennes are just two of the many strong results the team achieved in April.
Robert Jenko, Bahrain Victorious Development Team Sports Director, said: “The collaboration with the World Tour team has been very successful. We’ve already exchanged some riders during the season, as we operate as one unified entity. For example, Žak Eržen won GP Adria Mobil with us, and our riders had the opportunity to race with the WT team in prestigious races such as the Tour de la Provence, GP Denain, and Volta ao Algarve.”
“With four wins (three of them at UCI events) by four different riders in the first part of the season, the results are a strong payoff. But the real sign of our level is that we are competitive in every race. The win at Gent-Wevelgem U23, against all the other WT development teams, is the cherry on the cake and a confirmation of the great work done not only this year but over the past few years.”
“We are now already preparing for our biggest goal of the season: the Giro Next Gen (from June 15 to 22), where we aim to be competitive both for stage wins and the general classification.”
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