On Sunday, June 30th, the European BikeTrial BIU Championship 2019 was held in Brumano, the smallest town of Bergamo province, Italy. This race was also valid as the third round of the Italian Championship.
A local sports area and its facilities including a restaurant, provided by the Municipality, became the heart of the event. The football pitch served as a campsite and a place for two artificial zones. Stage as well as registration and technical point were placed next to the restaurant.
The total of 74 riders (excellent number for this competition) had to ride the first artificial zone, then continue in 5 (group B) and 6 (group A) natural sections and face the second artificial zone in the end of each lap. The sections were built in the very classic earthy-and-rock ground including natural walls which seemed like they were carved out of a rock. They were spread around the woods surrounding Brumano, technically difficult and built with painstaking precision (we’ll write about it later in detail).
The athletes, from Poussin to the Elite, had to concentrate during the entire section as nature of the ground did not allow them any kind of distraction. This type of zones was more suitable for technical riders who are use to trainings on natural and tricky obstacles. The first artificial section was built of concrete blocks with two spectacular cascades of blue coloured water and the second one was made of logs and wooden coils placed in a very technical way. On top of that, even though Brumano is at 1000 meters above sea level, riders had to also deal with tropical temperatures in both laps of the race. Really tough!
As for the results, in the Poussin category won Nikolaj Wozniak (PL), followed by Leonardo Ducoli (IT) and Noah Ernesto Moro (IT). Nikolaj showed really high technical skills. We’ll put an eye on him in the future.In the Benjamin won Vojtech Veprek (CZ), followed by Eddie Weightman (UK) and Jiri Senhal (CZ). Veprek won the race with 0 (Zero!) penalties. An amazing result as the sections were really tough.
In Femine category Iva Antlova (CZ) won, followed by Albzeta Vaneckova (CZ) and Julia Mallen Hernandez (CAT).
In the Minime won Rene Vymetal (CZ) with an excellent 16 penalties, followed by Oliver Weightman (UK) and Arthur Cavagna (FR).
In the Major category (over 35 y.o.) won the Spanish rider Cristian Nicolae Bursuc, followed by Davide Riffaldi (IT) and Roberto Congiu (IT).
In Junior won Tomas Veprek (CZ), followed by Ondrej Krupcik (CZ) and Paolo Locatelli (IT). Veprek won with 17 penalties that is an excellent score on these sections.
In Senior Marek Hlavka (CZ) won with 12 penalties, followed by Pablo Adame Mariano (ES) and Raul Martinez Carrasco (ES).
In the category Elite the European BikeTrial Champion 2019 is Vashek Kolar (CZ) who closed the race with 17 penalites. This type of sections were perfect for Vashek who did just 4 penalties in the second lap. Jonas Friderich (DE) got the second place. Jonas rode very well in his first BIU competition (welcome!). Adam Morewood (UK) were third in his first race in the Elite category. He is just 17 years old…
To conclude the article about this very well organised race, we have to mention all those who put their heart, time and energy into making.
Our first thoughts go to the family of the organiser, Roberto Costa from Team Villongo ASD, who sadly lost his son Nicola (age 28) at the very beginning of event planning. The family decided to carry on with EBC preparations despite the tragic event and hold the competition in Nicola’s memory.
Thanks go to Claudio Tombini who took over the role of organizer/coordinator and, I assure you, it wasn’t easy ...However, he had an amazing team of volunteers behind his back.
Thanks to the families of Fabio Pizzagalli, Gianluca Orfino, Pablo Vavassori, Giuseppe Locatelli, Angelo Pozzali, Massimo Losa and many others.
Thanks to Gruppo Turismo Brumano and all their volunteers who operated the dining area for three days.
Thanks to the Mayor of Brumano, Luciano Manzoni, who, in addition to actively collaborating at the event, gave the organiser free rein on everything. He even gave the OK for planting the wooden logs deep in the football pitch in one of the artificial zones. I can assure you that few authorities would have taken such decision.
Thanks to Giuliano Gualeni, here as the Secretary General of BIU, who took care of the secretary and formal issues.
Last, but not least, thanks to Luca Berizzi, who used to be a great rider in the late 90s and early part of the 2000s. He still keeps an incredible passion combined with a profound knowledge of our sport that very few people in the world have. Luca is the one who built the technical sections that received compliments from all riders.
What’s next? The most important BIU race of the season – the WBC 2019, which takes place from 12th till 17th of August in Kramolin (Pilsen region, CZ).
See you there!
Federico "Fedoushek" Tarchi for BikeTriaInternational