News

The small town of Laigueglia, in the Italian region of Liguria, has a population of less than 2,000 inhabitants, but every year it becomes the capital of world cycling for a day, as it hosts its own race since 1964. We are talking about Trofeo Laigueglia, a ProSeries race which reaches its 60th edition in 2023. In Cycling Fantasy, Laigueglia inaugurates the annual Italy .Pro combined classification, which brings together all the second division one-day races that take place on Italian soil, and which distributes 10 precious Tower of Pisa trophies at the end of the year.

The route

The race features a 200-kilometre route with almost 3,000 meters of climbing, with ascents to Bezzo (3.1 km at 6.2%), Cima Paravenna (6.8 km at 5.7%) and Testico ( 7.2 km at 4.4%) in the early part of the race. The outcome will take place in the 4 laps on the 10 kilometers long final circuit, which includes the climbs to Colla Michieri (2 km at 8,2%) and Capo Mele (2 km at 3.4%).

Favorites

The rough terrain rules out pure sprinters, so we must find the favorites amongst puncheurs and climbers. Richard Carapaz (1000), Carlos Rodríguez (600), Giulio Ciccone (600), Biniam Girmay (600), Diego Ulissi (600), Lorenzo Rota (400), Bauke Mollema (600), Andreas Kron (600), Alberto Bettiol (400), Alessandro Covi (400), Clément Champoussin (400), Thibaut Pinot (400), Benoît Cosnefroy (400), Rui Costa (200) and Andrea Piccolo (200) are some of the main favorites, although the start list is still in an initial phase and many teams are yet to present their line-ups.

Foto: Trofeo Laigueglia