Into the golden book of the past winners of this exciting and very tough event, it’s possible to find the illustrious name of Vincenzo Nibali (winner in 2017 and the only Italian athlete to have conquered it).
The race will a real showdown for climbers, with departure from the sea level, and the finish line set at 3275 meters of altitude, after 100 km.
All athletes at the start will be very motivated also for the very rich “jackpot” for the winner. But there won’t be any easy way out, as the cyclists will have to fight against the extremely difficult climatic conditions. Actually they will pass from the intense and torrid heat and humid of Taiwan to a much lower temperature and very ventilated as soon as they will go over 2000 meters, as the organizers say, “beyond the clouds“.
There will be various athlete coming from world tour and professional teams, however, all details don’t seem to bother the leader of Amore & Vita – Prodir, Pierpaolo Ficara, who wanted to take part in this competition, convincing team manager Cristian Fanini to make one last seasonal effort.
« We are now at the epilogue of a fantastic year – explains Fanini – Pierpaolo is in great condition, he has been scrupulously prepared on Etna for 15 days, right in view of this race, and arrived in Taiwan together with some members of the team including the Japanese Hishinuma / see photo / a week ago in order to settle in at best. We would be particularly keen to achieve another victory and honestly we would love to end the season with one from Pierpaolo, especially because this year he has been missing it, so far. This will be the last chance and since he deserves it all, we hope also in a bit of luck. The condition, despite being practically late October, is that of the best moments. To be clear, he’s performing on the same levels of the Tour of Tuscany and Giro dell’Emilia, and maybe even better, so we really hope for a big shot. It would certainly be fantastic not only for us and more of all for himself, given that it is a very rich race, but also for our sponsor Prodir to whom we would like to give yet another seasonal satisfaction in a country where Prodir and Premec products are very well known and appreciated».