Congrats to Ambassador Simone Medici for taking the overall title in the Italian Gravitalia National circuit! Here’s his recap of the big event.

I started the season with an overall podium goal. At the beginning of 2019, I started working full time in the local bike shop and the time left for training and riding my bike wasn’t that much. I basically ride my bike on the weekend and usually train on Thursday (bike shop closing day). When I’m not training I’m working on other stuff like the Ambassador project or wrenching on my bikes.

At the first national race of the year, I ended up 3rd, which was already a good position for me considering how strong the field was this year with many fast riders showing up on the race field. 

After a long season of racing, some of the other top riders crashed or committed errors and a couple of riders even injured themselves, so I was able to take advantage of my consistency during the season.
I never crashed and pushed myself more than I knew I could do, and I even won the 3rd round of the circuit.

Last weekend I showed up at the last race with a small advantage on Davide Palazzari, 2nd in the overall  (one of my closest friends on the circuit and increasingly famous World Cup ripper).

This past weekend has been one of the most intense and nervewracking of the year because I couldn’t afford to make mistakes in qualifying and race runs.

Matteo Tini of the Kona Italy team supported me all weekend and stayed by my side every single moment before going in the start hut, and I have to thank him for all the hard work he did for me.

I ended up 2nd in qualifying and 2nd in the final race (both won by Davide Palazzari) and I finally secured myself the victory of the overall Gravitalia circuit after gettin’ 2nd overall in 2014 ( in that year I got injured while I was leading the championship and I lost my kidney). This means a lot to me and I couldn’t be more stoked because I managed to race with my mind until the very last corner. That’s not an easy part of our sport.

I’m just happy to finish the season on a very good note, getting stronger and stronger race after race and being able to not risk my safety on the track. 
Thank you to all the people who supported me this year, especially the people at Kona Bikes! 

Photos courtesy of Yuri Cortinovis @yuricortinovis and Gravitalia @gravitalia.