Starting from the third edition of the Montello 24h (16-17 April 2011), the organizers will award a special prize in memory of Jure Robic, the slovenian ultracycling champion who tragically died on September 24th 2010.

THE THIRD EDITION OF THE MONTELLO 24H WILL START ON APRIL 16th. JOIN OUR MAILING LIST FROM THE CONTACT PAGE OR FOLLOW US ON TWITTER TO RECEIVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE RACE AS SOON AS WE POST IT ON THE WEBSITE. WE ARE WAITING FOR YOU.

UMCA (ULTRA MARATHON CYCLING ASSOCIATION) APPOINTED THE MONTELLO 24H AS EUROPEAN 24H CHAMPIONSHIP 2010

A HUGE SUCCESS FOR THE SECOND EDITION OF THE 24-HR MONTELLO - MEMORIAL MAURO MARCATO (APRIL 17-18, 2010)

The 24-hr Montello - Memorial Mauro Marcato was held on April 17 and 18 in the splendid setting of Montello, in the March of Treviso. And now the results. The race – the first important appointment of the ultracycling season in Europe – has reached its second edition and has grown dramatically compared to the 2009 edition. With 53 registered racers from 12 countries around the world (Australia, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Greek, Italy, the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.S.A.) representing three continents (North America, Europe and Oceania), the 24-hr Montello confirmed its titleship recognized by the UMCA (Ultra Cycling Marathon Association, the international Ultracycling federation) as Italian Ultracycling Championship, European 24-hr Ultracycling 2010 Championship and the World Cup Trial. Many and important RAAMers participated: the Swiss Beny Furrer (RAAM 2003 and RAAM 2008) and his yellow countryman Hermann Bachmann (RAAM 2009); the German Michael Nehls, seventh in the RAAM 2008; the Italians Giovanni Vilardi (RAAM 2005 on a two-person team) and Fabio Biasiolo – the first Italian ever to have finished the RAAM and one of the few athletes in the world to have raced over 5000 kilometres in fewer than 9 days – having participated eleven times. A lot of important athletes, such as the Australian triathlete Matthew Warner-Smith, who won the 24-hr Montello – World Cup Trial, the fifth on the world ultracycling calendar and the first in Europe.

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The Montello 24h goes, for Fabio Biasiolo desire, also in memory of Brett Malin (past away during RAAM 2003) and Bob Breedlove (past away during RAAM 2005). Fabio put this stiker on the four sides of his Pace Van to remember all the time and forever Brett, Bob and Mauro.

The 24-hour Montello is the result of the inspiration of Sara Taglialatela and Fabio Biasiolo, lovers of the marvellous sport that is Ultracycling, and from the need manifested by the UMCA (the world ultracycling federation) to have a fixed yearly appointment also in Italy, like in other countries in the world. The few previous attempts to create the 24-hour Montello (see the 1000 miles or the Giro d’Italia in One Leg in 1995 and 1996 and the 1001 Miles Italy in 2006), animated by not enough determination and passion to achieve the objective, were sporadic and isolated cases that underlined even more an unexplainable absence for Italy, a country in which the number of Ultracyclists is growing.
With a lot of dedication, Fabio Biasiolo (as the person in charge of southern Europe for the UMCA) had helped the organizer of the 1001 Miles Italy in 2006 to divulge the race through the communication channels of the aforementioned association, in this way contributing to making it become the RAAM qualification race for Italy. Unfortunately, the following year it was ended by transforming this race into a Randonne license without any communication on behalf of the organizer, who had spent a lot to make his event the only qualification for RAAM. At the beginning of January 2009, John Hughes (world manager of UMCA), from the moment the 1001 Miles Italy organizer had interrupted contact with the federation, asked Fabio to find another competition or event that could have the technical characteristics and seriousness needed to also give Italy a sports event like a RAAM qualification race. At that point, after having talked with Sara, and since Montello and the entire area around Treviso is Fabio’s daily training ground for professional ultracycling, Sara and Fabio decided to take on the task and organize the event, even though they only had three months to create everything they were asked to do: a valid race like the Italian Ultracycling Championship, the World Ultracycling Cup Trail and the Italian Qualification Trial for Race Across America.
“The greatest difficulties we encountered,” explained the organizers, “were bureaucratic, that is meeting the councillors of the five municipalities involved in the race course, explain to them what ultracycling is and how the race is carried out; obtain authorization from the Municipalities to then get approval from the Province of Treviso. Only on Friday April 17 (the race started on Saturday April 18 at 9:00 a.m.), around 4:00 p.m., did we receive approval from the Province of Treviso with authorization to do the race. This blocked us in media communication of the event, which, in any case, even if in a slightly reduced form, we were able to conclude, meeting all the safety and control criteria, and whatever else was needed to prove our good intentions and firm will, which the 24-hour Montello represents. Mauro Marcato memorial stands out for the complete respect for the discipline of ultracycling and its rules.” John Hughes, before embarking on this adventure, had said that if there had been 10-15 cyclists registered it would have been an incredible success (the difficulty of this type of competition and specifically the fact that there were 460 m in climbs for every kilometre of the 33.5 km that make up a race lap must be considered). Those 15 cyclists who participated, the “pioneers” of the 24-hour Montello Mauro Marcato Memorial, were there, but at the last moment three foreigners and some Italian specialists were missing, who, for various reasons, could no longer take part in the race.
(Fabio Biasiolo and Sara Taglialatela)