vai su WILIER.it
Team Colombia rider Edwin Avila gave his team and his whole Nation an incredible joy by winning the Points Race gold medal and bringing to his Country its first gold medal in the 2014 Track World Championships in Calì in the night of Friday, February 28th. It was an outstanding effort by the 24-year-old native of Calì, that doubled the World title he had clinched in the same specialty back in 2011 in Appeldoorn (Netherlands).
Avila took the breath away from the thousands of fans cheering in the Calì velodrome with an amazing aggressive strategy, that saw him move on the attack to earn laps since the early going: el Kalimeno managed to win the race by gaining 3 laps on the bunch, that marks a really notable achievement for this great talent Claudio Corti brought to full-time road racing in Europe in 2013. In the end, Avila scored 70 points, four more than New Zealand’s Thomas Scully and 12 over Spaniard Eloi Teruel. Edwin won the fourth World gold medal on track in the Colombian history, becoming the first ever to win it twice.
“I wish to thank and to dedicate this victory to my Country, the Colombian Cycling Federation, the Olympic Committee, Coldeportes, my Family, and obviously my Team Colombia – said the newly-crowned World Champion – it was a very hard race, but I did a very good preparation for it, so I knew I could have a shot at it.”
“In the past I had won this race with maximum 1 lap gained, and this time I managed to take 3: I think I owe a lot of it to road racing, that gave me so much more endurance that proved crucial to reach another major achievement today.”
Team Colombia General Manager Claudio Corti was also excited to see his prospect break out again on the World stage: “He didn’t win just as a sprinter today, he won as a great rider: one with amazing strength and endurance. He was impressive today: I wouldn’t say that we expected this, but we know what he is capable to do, as he did some incredible things also on the road, and he started in the same fashion at the Tour de San Luis too. We are so happy for Edwin, and can’t wait to see him back in Italy to celebrate his success with his teammates and see his talent flourish on the road.”
On the same night, Team Colombia’ Juan Esteban Arango started his way in the Omnium event: after the first two races, Juanes sits in eight position, still very close to the podium, and will keep on fighting Saturday in the second day of the event.
Calì (Colombia), 1° Marzo 2014, Team Colombia press office.
Photo: Revista Mundo Ciclistico
