La Rosina, La Tisa, Diesel Farm and the grand finale in Bassano del Grappa for the race created by Filippo Pozzato and his team. Marc Hirschi and Samuele Battistella are hunting for an encore, but there is no shortage of opponents
Less than 24 hours and the 2023 professional season will officially be history. As has been happening for a couple of years now, the Veneto Classic, the closing event of Ride the Dreamland, will put the exclamation point on this year, with a race that promises fireworks. For all the riders it will be the last chance to leave their mark and the route is perfectly suited to those who want to invent something.
We are used to associating the province of Belluno with the splendid peaks of the Dolomites, but for this occasion we will see it in a different, but equally elegant, guise. The Veneto Classic will start from Mel, which since 2018 has been one of the most beautiful villages in Italy, and from there it will go towards Feltre, then skirt the right bank of the Piave river up to Pederobba and then head towards Bassano del Grappa, also passing through the city of Canova, Possagno, and Romano d'Ezzelino.
At this point, having arrived in the city of the Alpine troops, we will have just passed the first, totally flat, 80 km of the race. The race will then start to get more lively with the first circuit of La Rosina (2.1 km at 6.5%), 12.6 km long and which will be repeated 4 times, one more than in 2022. After that it will be time for the circuit of La Tisa in Colceresa, a short cobbled sector of 330 meters at 15.2%, brought to the fore by Pozzato and his team for the first time on the occasion of the 2020 Italian Championships and which has now become iconic (the climb will be overcome 4 times).
The wall of La Tisa is also where the Veneto Classic will assert its most festive soul: along the climb, in fact, a special area will be set up where you can drink Pedavena beer and eat a You&Meat hamburger - accompanied by a DJ set to heat up the atmosphere even more - applaud the runners in the 4 passages on the climb and follow the rest of the race on the giant screen installed especially for this purpose. In short, with the Tisa Party you will have a taste of Flemish atmosphere on the splendid Venetian roads.
Before the arrival in Bassano, however, there is still one more rough patch, the wall of Diesel Farm, the wine tailoring shop, 1300 meters of dirt road with an average gradient of 10.9%, 10 km from the finish line. And since the weather doesn't seem to be too promising, be careful also on the dirt descent which, if wet, could prove to be a terrible enemy. Then there is the short and dry ramp of Contrà Soarda, before taking Contrà San Giorgio and Viale Diaz. After passing the Ponte Nuovo in the center, at Piazzale Cadorna a sharp left turn onto Via Porto di Brenta, a final effort in Via Portici Lunghi to climb the squares and reach the finish line in Piazza Libertà.
THE FAVOURITES – Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) won with great authority last year, so why not dream of repeating? The Swiss, former U23 world champion, is in good shape, as he also proved at the Giro del Veneto, and knows the route, which is why it will be difficult for anyone to beat him. The Emirati team will have Davide Formolo, second last year, and Rafal Majka as two valid alternatives to try to finish strong, without forgetting the experience of Matteo Trentin.
The host Samuele Battistella also knows how to win this race (in 2021, however, the route was slightly different) and with the Italian champion Simone Velasco they form a truly fearsome pair. Among the other riders from Vicenza eager to show off are Filippo Zana (Jayco AlUla), Marco Frigo (Israel Premier Tech), who is from San Giuseppe di Cassola, a few kilometers from Bassano, and Luca Mozzato (Arkéa-Samsic), even if it is probably a bit too tough for him.
Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) is certainly in great shape, having made no secret of aiming for the big target tomorrow after an excellent second half of the season. Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën) has the same goal, along with Giro del Veneto winner Dorian Godon, Nicola Conci (Alpecin Deceuninck), third last year, Andreas Kron and Florian Vermeersch (Lotto Dstny), fresh from his success at the Serenissima Gravel.
In the event of a tough race, keep an eye on Domenico Pozzovivo (Israel Premier Tech), who is looking for a contract for next year, with Jakob Fuglsang, Luca Covili (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Gianluca Brambilla and Walter Calzoni (Q36.5), while Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) and Filippo Fiorelli (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) would prefer a less selective race.
450 PEDALING AT THE SOCIAL RIDE VENEtoGO
Quite a few enthusiasts, on Saturday, rode on the same roads as the Veneto Classic for the VENEtoGO Social Ride, the ideal way to spend a day in good company, with good food, beer and wine, without the stress of looking at the rankings.
Led by captain Filippo Pozzato, about 450 of them set off from Villa Ca’ Cornaro, including some well-known faces from cycling, such as Roberto Reverberi and Samuele Zoccarato for Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè, or Soraya Paladin and Anna Trevisi. After La Tisa, the group stopped at PTB Tony Barba for some pizza and a beer, while at the top of the tough Diesel Farm climb, a drop of wine awaited them to forget the effort. On the way back to Villa Ca’ Cornaro, another Pedavena beer, this time with a You&Meat hamburger, to end the day in the best possible way.