Hard work pays off, and the results are showing!
It was definitely a successful weekend for Trek Pirelli with our XCM rider Samuele Porro earning his second silver medal at the European Championship!
The Raid Evolenard was a really challenging one with its 78 km long and 3.800 meters of elevation on technical trails, all the struggles that comes with high altitude racing.The Trek Supercaliber was the weapon of choice of this weekend for Porro and Rabensteiner.
Samuele started off attacking on the first long uphill taking a good advantage on the other racers, while Fabian was doing teamwork on the cahsing group.
Porro arrived at mid-race with a 2′ gap, but in the second enormous uphill, Seewald entered in boost mode and started to get closer to the Trek Pirelli rider.
On the GPM, the German rider was in first place with Samuele in 2nd in a steady pace, but with no possibility to keep the leader’s rhythm. After 78 km, Samuele Porro conquered his 3rd European Silver Medal.
“The race was really good, I’m happy for the silver medal, but I was aiming for gold this weekend. I played my cards with a tactical mind. I tried to go fast in the first uphill to then take advantage of the technical descents, also thanks to the technical choice of using the dropper post. The tactic worked and I detached Seewald, by almost 3′, but on the last climb he caught me and overtook me.I realized that even if I had risked everything in the last descent, I wouldn’t have closed the gap and so I preferred to settle for second place. This year I really wanted to win, I strongly believed in it, but this is MTB. ” – Samuele
A great race also for Fabian Rabenstainer. After a strong start putting efforts in with the team he started to slightly slow down while riding in 6th position, but took advantage of the last downhill to show his skills and crossed the finish line in 5th place.
It was definitely a successful weekend for the team with 2 Trek Pirelli riders in the Top 5 of the very competitive European Championship.
Images: Michele Mondini
