With only a few races so far this year due to injury, Pablo Dapena González is lining up fit and ready to race next Sunday, 25 September as the top seed at the first edition of Challenge Sanremo on the Italian Riviera. Among the women, most eyes are likely to be on Lucy Byram. Both will face stiff competition from a 48-strong international pro field in what promises to be exciting race over this tough and honest new course.
Dapena González can look back on a good summer, including a win at Lotto Challenge Gdansk at the end of June. That victory in Poland undoubtedly gives him a lot of confidence heading into Challenge Sanremo, where he will face competition from the likes of highly-ranked William Mennesson (FRA) as well as Florin Salvisberg (SUI), Thomas Bishop (GBR), Michael Raelert (GER), Gregory Barnaby (ITA), Alessandro Degasperi (ITA) and Mattia Ceccarelli (ITA) who will all have their eye on that top podium spot. The latter three athletes enjoy the home advantage with strong crowd support pushing them on.
Like Dapena González, Lucy Byram, can also look back on a good summer with her win at the inaugural Challenge Wales. With that knowledge, Byram will again want to do everything in her power to be the fastest in Sanremo and knows this is certainly possible. Just like the men's race, the women's pro field is deep and anything is can happen on the day. Most competition will come from Aleksandra Jedrzejewska (POL), Emma Bilham (SUI), Nina Derron (SUI) and Lena Berlinger (GER) among others.
The Challenge Sanremo swim takes place from the beautiful Bagni Paradiso Beach and consists of one 1.9km lap. During the single lap 90km bike, over 1,500 vertical metres will be climbed, including a section with a gradient of 10 percent and the stunning downhill that is part of the famous Milano-Sanremo cycle race. By comparison, the run is flat along the ocean front with three laps before finishing in the heart of Sanremo on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Challenge Sanremo will take place on 25 September with the pro race starting at 8:20am CEST. Live updates, including a live stream (Italian and English), live timing and live race updates are available via www.challenge-family.live.
MALE PRO:
1 MENNESSON WILLIAM FRA
2 DAPENA GONZALEZ PABLO ESP
3 BARNABY GREGORY ITA
4 CECCARELLI MATTIA ITA
5 VIAIN SIMON FRA
6 NAVARRO THOMAS FRA
7 SALVISBERG FLORIN SUI
8 SANCHEZ MANTECON ROBER ESP
9 PASSUELLO DOMENICO ITA
10 BREIVOLD JON SAEVERAS NOR
11 DEGASPERI ALESSANDRO ITA
12 BREINLINGER DAVID GER
13 CASILLAS ALBERTO LTU
14 BOLBAT MARCEL GER
15 GRABOWSKI MICHAL POL
16 MARTINUSSEN OLIVER DEN
17 THALMANN SVEN SUI
18 SCHIPPERGES ELIAS GER
19 COLINO CALOMARDE JOAN ESP
20 RAELERT MICHAEL GER
21 EISENLAUER FABIAN GER
22 NEVEU BAPTISTE FRA
23 KRELLE TIMO GER
24 SCHOFISH LASSE GER
25 DE VROET MATTHEW GER
26 MEYER TIM GER
27 CORTI MARCO ITA
28 RIDOLFI RICCARDO ITA
29 FIGINI ANDREA ITA
30 CONTE R‚MI FRA
31 ROSSETTI DAVIDE ITA
32 DELCO LORENZO SUI
33 FARACO EMANUELE ITA
FEMALE PRO:
101 BYRAM LUCY GBR
102 JEDRZEJEWSKA ALEKSANDR POL
103 BILHAM EMMA SUI
104 DERRON NINA SUI
105 GUERARD JUSTINE FRA
106 BERLINGER LENA GER
107 PRIARONE GIORGIA ITA
108 GROSVENOR TARA GBR
109 COLLONGE JEANNE FRA
110 SCHONFELDER SARAH GER
111 BAUMANN MELANIE SUI
112 MITCHELL OLIVIA GBR
113 KOLAROVA HANA CZE
114 SIFFERT ALANIS SUI