Fondo Italia meets Giorgio Di CentaItalian cross-country skiing legend and currently skiman of the national biathlon team. This is a good opportunity to present the Le Grand Bornand routewhich the athletes will face starting tomorrow – Thursday 19 December – when the men’s sprint World Cup is scheduled. The French track is a selective and rather technical track, where attention will certainly not be lacking, also due to some downhill sections that are not very easy to tackle.
About the characteristics of the route, Di Centa underlines the alternation of challenging climbs and equally stimulating descents: “A very tough track, with tough climbs at the beginning and immediately afterwards descents with challenging curves. So the athletes must stay focused and not overdo it, in order to then do these turns well. Halfway there is a nice long climb, which must be taken with due caution. Then at the end of the match you have to have it to make the difference and obviously in the middle there is the shooting range and you have to do well there too, think and arrive with the right strength.”
About the chance to make a difference in the skiing partDi Centa highlights the fundamental role of clarity on the shooting range: “Can we make a particular difference on the track? Yes, but you have to get to the range and have that freshness to take the targets, because it’s always very important.”
In the end, about the snow conditionsDi Centa adds: “Already today the snow is very slow, it was already hot in the morning, so it’s already as if it was almost raining. Rain is forecast for the men’s race tomorrow, but I think we will do our best. And then snow is forecast tomorrow night, so the women will run in fresh snow on Friday. Then on Saturday the cold returns, so we will have various temperatures and different climates during this trip to Le Grand Bornand. It’s our job, we adapt and try to do the best. It’s a great feeling and we hope to get some good results.”
