BMW Brand Ambassador Alessandro Zanardi wins the Para-Cycling World Cup at the season’s finale in Segovia.

Segovia (ES), 27th July 2014. Alessandro Zanardi (IT) once more successfully raced his handcycle: this weekend, the BMW Brand Ambassador and works driver claimed the overall win in the 2014 Para-Cycling World Cup, competing in the MH5 (men’s handcycle) category. In addition, he was victorious with the Italian para-cycling team by also winning the Team World Cup. The World Cup is organised by the world cycling federation UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale), and the 2014 season’s finale was held in Spanish Segovia this weekend. In the MH5 category, three races were held: the time trial (22 kilometres) on Friday, the road race (60 kilometres) on Saturday and the team relay (4 x 1 kilometre) on Sunday.

In the time trial on Friday, Zanardi finished third on the podium behind winner Tim de Vries (NL) and second placed Stuart Tripp (AU). In the road race on Saturday, the 47-year old Italian returned to winning ways. The final part of the 60 kilometre course was an 800 metre uphill section. Zanardi entered this final section lying in fourth, but, with a strong finish, he took the lead and managed to build a gap to his opponents, crossing the finish line with an advantage of eight seconds. In doing so, he not only claimed victory in this race but also secured the overall World Cup win.

To finish the successful weekend, Zanardi and his team-mates Vittorio Podestà and Luca Mazzone (both IT) took victory in the team relay race on Sunday and celebrated the overall World Cup win in the team classification. The world cup final was the last para-cycling competition before the World Championship at the end of August, where Zanardi will try to defend his world titles in the time trial and in the road race.

“It was a good weekend and I am very happy to have won the World Cup”, Zanardi said. “I was not so satisfied with the time trial, I did not feel one hundred percent right. On other days I would have been very happy with a podium, but this time I was a bit disappointed. I was however happy for the other two guys because we all are friends. In the road race, I surprised myself because it was a very hard and closely fought race, so I did not expect to finish with an advantage of eight seconds. To then also win the Team World Cup with my team-mates was the perfect rounding-up of the weekend. Now, the next step will be the World Championship which will be very tough because we could see this weekend that the level is as high as it has ever been and that everybody is very competitive. I will now return home and continue with intensive training because if I want to keep my world titles, I have work to do, no doubt about that.”

The UCI Para-Cycling World Championship will be held from 28th August to 1st September in Greenville (US). The weekend before, Zanardi will return to the cockpit of his BMW Z4 GT3. From 22nd to 24th August, the BMW works driver will contest the fourth round of the 2014 Blancpain Sprint Series at Slovakia Ring near Bratislava (SK).