The World Championship gold at the last sprint. An immense Elia Viviani, who has already announced his retirement, gives himself the triumph on the track of Santiago de Chile by winning the elimination race: one sprint after another eliminating all the competitors, until the final sprint on the New Zealander Campbell Stewart, in the race that closes a successful career. It is the first and only men’s medal for Italy in the Chilean world championship, which is added to the two of the Italian women’s cycling. After the gold from the quartet of Italian women in the pursuit, the second medal had arrived in the morning, before Viviani’s exploit, again from the girls: it was the bronze won in Madison by the Olympic champions Vittoria Guazzini and Chiara Consonni.
The third, in the Italian evening, with Viviani: «It’s the career finale I had always dreamed of», the Italian’s words after the awards ceremony, on a stage filled with the entire Italian team who wore a t-shirt with the writing ‘The Last Dance’, then repeated on the white cloak that the 36-year-old champion from Verona wore over the rainbow jersey and the gold around his neck. «Viviani thus crowns a splendid career in the track race that is most congenial to him. It is the third world title of the pursuit, after those of 2021 and 2022, and it will certainly come close to the Olympic gold of the Omnium at Rio 2016. «Sixteen years of career, always at the top: if I look back, I realize the level I have reached. And I say thanks to cycling”, the words of a smiling Viviani.
«This is what I meant last year when I didn’t have a team on the road, and I wanted them to give their best, as I did with an excellent Vuelta. And then I wanted this rainbow shirt – he concluded – My greatest satisfaction is having created, with coach Marco Villa, a movement: after my old medals, others have arrived, with the girls and with the quartets. Now there is a structure, a federation that believes in it, many young people who are pushing. The future is ours.” The Guazzini-Consonni couple also celebrated with him. In the race that saw them triumph in Paris 2024, the Madison, the Italians fought in a test marked by falls that eliminated the Netherlands, who were in the lead, and the United States. Consonni also ended up on the ground but managed to restart, helping to conquer the podium behind the British Leech-Archibald and the French Berteau and Borras.
«It was one of the hardest Madisons I’ve done, partly because of the fall, partly because I didn’t have the right legs – said Consonni -. If Vittoria hadn’t been there, we wouldn’t have gotten on the podium. We made some tactical errors, there is room for improvement, but this is precisely why this bronze has a special flavour.” «Chiara, as always, belittles herself a little. After arriving he made me cry, because I don’t want him to feel guilty or regret anything. The two of us climbed onto the podium and ran to the end, united: we win and lose together”, replied Guazzini. The podium was just missed in the women’s individual pursuit, where Federica Venturelli achieved fourth place, while Martina Alzini finished seventh. In the bronze final, the Italian was beaten by the American Chloe Dygert. The gold and silver went to the British Morris and Knight. Of the four athletes in the finals, Venturelli was also the youngest, being technically still an Under 23, a specialty in which experience and energy management are decisive. The Lombard girl will also be present at the last women’s race, the points race. Also in the women’s field, Martina Fidanza came sixth in the kilometre, setting a new Italian record (1:05.573). The world title, with a new world record, was won by the Dutch Hetty van de Wouw (1.03.121). Silver for the Russian Burlakova and bronze for the New Zealander Andrews. In the men’s Omnium, Juan David Sierra started with a third place in the scratch but slipped back in subsequent events, finishing twelfth. In the sprint, Stefano Moro was eliminated in the round of 32. In the late Italian evening Elia Viviani will take to the track in the elimination race and the duo Juan David Sierra-Davide Stella in the Madison.