Elena Cecchini makes 30: a special birthday at high altitude

Special day for the champion of San Marco di Mereto di Tomba: she has won a lot, she will win again

WOODEN BRIDGE. Best wishes to Elena Cecchini, the champion of San Marco di Mereto di Tomba turns thirty and celebrates them on Wednesday 25 May in the high ground retreat in Livigno, where she is preparing other successes, first of all a stage in the Giro d’Italia that she has been following for almost ten years.

The cyclist of the Dutch squadron SD Worx and the Fiamme Azzurre will celebrate with training and preparations. In the autumn, in fact, she will marry the Olympic champion Elia Viviani, the cycling star who returned to Ineos who joined her in Livigno after a short stop at the arrival at the Giro d’Italia at the finish line of the Aprica stage.

What is Cecchini for Friuli? She is simply the most successful cyclist in history. Already 13 successful seasons, starting from the European Junior Championships in 2009 to the last pearl, last September in Trentino, gold in the mixed team time trial, again at the European Championships this time for professionals.

But his career is linked to an unrepeatable trio: the three tricolor jerseys won from 2015 to 2016: Varese, Turin, Darfo Boario.

First surprise victory, just landed on the planet of the Elite, second in strength, even uphill on Colle di Superga, she who is a fast walker and also an excellent pistard. The last few kilometers of the champion alone are memorable with that image of dad Luca, her first fan, who chased her on her path, encouraging her. Third? Attack, uphill defense, lonely arrival, with her boyfriend Elia on the last slope cheering her on before winning the Italian Championship the next day.

And the silver at the 2019 Dutch European Championships after a spectacular escape, repeated by her future husband the next day?

Happy birthday Elena. That she has Friuli in her heart and in her career the flag with the eagle has never been forgotten. Like at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Yes, because she also raced hers, while her brother Daniele, masseur of the Italian national team, took care of her to represent her family in Tokyo. And she is aiming for the next ones, those in Paris, rejecting the competition of the younger athletes who in her wake are monopolizing the arrival orders of the main races in the world.

And then? “I’ll be a mom,” she always says. Meanwhile, happy birthday and at least 30 other victories.