The 35th edition of the Gsiesertal Run is history

The 35th Gsiesertal run of the Italy Cup in the South Tyrolean Gsiesertal over 42 km for men and 30 km for women, which is also an open international race, brought a victory for Stefano Gardener (1:47.57) from Trentino, who his colleague from the Carabinieri Paolo Fanton (1:48.04) and Fabio Pasini from the Italian Army (1:48.38) crossed the finish line. Olympic champion Evgenj Dementiev reached 5th place.

In the women's Italian Cup race, Debora Roncari (1:22.18) from Verona triumphed, beating Francesca Franchi (1:25.56) and Martina Vignaroli (1:25.57).

In the women's 42 km race, Antonella Confortola (2:04.29) made up for second place from yesterday in the CT race and finished just ahead of Chiara Caminada (2:04.39) and Ukrainian Lada Nesterenko (2:05.35). Yesterday's winner in CT Franziska Müller (2:10.41) came fourth among the women.

In the men's 30 km, South Tyrolean Matteo Tanel (1:17.45.5) won, followed by Urban Lentsch (1:17.45.8) from Austria and Julian Brunner (1:17.46) from South Tyrol.

After the light snowfall during the night, the races were exciting on a perfect route: the first to cross the finish line in St. Martin/Gsies were the men on the shorter distance, with an exciting sprint that Tanel was able to win, Although he had difficulties in the last few kilometers, he was helped by his excellent skis and was able to win the race - ahead of the Austrian Lentsch, who was third in the 30 km race last year, and ahead of Julian Brunner, who was just behind Lentsch crossed the finish line in third place.

Tanel was happy with his performance: “I'm happy about winning the sprint, it worked really well, I was always alone in the last kilometer and then caught up at the end with extremely fast skis. I had already decided to do the 30km race”.

For the women, the race is also counted towards the Italian Cup, and Debora Roncari from Verona had no trouble winning the competition: “I was in top shape, and the skis also played their part, I noticed immediately that I was fast. The result is also great because of the atmosphere. I really like the track, I've now won two races out of two here," said the winner from two years ago, who won again today - a complete success on one of Roncari's favorite tracks, which is also part of the World Cup . Around three minutes after her, Francesca Franchi and Martina Vignaroli crossed the finish line, a sprint in which Franchi from Trentino narrowly beat Vignaroli from Modena.

However, the outcome of the 42 km race was not entirely clear, with many spectators watching the RAI live broadcast along the route and on the giant screen in the finish area. The men's quartet at the top consisted of Paolo Fanton and Stefano Gardener from the Carabinieri and the two cross-country skiers from the army, Fabio Pasini and Sergio Bonaldi. The first two soon broke away from the group and the final sprint was decided between Gardener and Fanton, although unfortunately the two did not finish together (only because of the lack of excitement among the spectators) as Gardener overtook Fanton and took 35th place in Gsiesertal Run decided for himself.

“At the top of the mountain we tried to leave the others behind and outrun the two cross-country skiers from the army, first Paolo and then me. I tried to go faster downhill and that worked well, so I managed to leave them both behind. But I think it's a good result for both of them. I perhaps had a little more energy in reserve on the last stretch. A great route, I congratulate the entire Gsiesertal, who always organizes this great race.”

Fanton is also satisfied despite second place at the end, but it is definitely an important result for the team: “I was missing that certain something to be able to keep up with Stefano's pace, I was missing that mental kick to keep going and to run head to head to the finish. But I think I'm always a little slower than him when sprinting, so it probably wouldn't have changed much. A great race, it’s always fantastic to run here in the Gsiesertal!”

The women's 42km race was also hotly contested, with Antonella Confortola and Chiara Caminada catching Ukraine's Nesterenko after she gained a slight lead before the strenuous St. Magdalena climb. A “revenge” for the always very ambitious Confortola after second place yesterday: “I wouldn’t talk about revenge, because sport doesn’t consist of revenge. Skating is simply my technique because I lack arm strength with the classic technique. I'm super happy today, for a moment I thought I would be second or third, but then the climb came where I saw it in front of me and the climb was just my thing. Caminada stayed with me as we caught up with the Ukrainian (who was in the lead until then before things went downhill - CoR) and then left her behind us downhill.

Chiara Caminada was also satisfied, and a short time later she was taken into the arms of her father Roberto, who passed on his love of cross-country skiing to his daughter: “When I heard that my daughter had come second behind Confortola, I could just do it Don’t believe it, that’s every father’s dream, I wish that for everyone!”

Walter Felderer, the chairman of the organizing committee, is also more than satisfied at the end of the two wonderful days: “We are very satisfied, also with the live broadcast on television. It snowed tonight and everyone was excited about the route. In order to organize such a race for 35 years in a row, cooperation and harmony are required above all. Tomorrow morning we will be thinking about the next edition.”

The complete results of the 35th Gsiesertal run are here visible.

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The 35th edition of the Gsiesertal Run is history

On Sunday the skating races were on the program at the 35th Gsiesertal run. While Stefano Gardener and Antonella Confortola triumphed over 42 km, Matteo Tanel and Debora Roncari prevailed over 30 km.

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