It seems like an eternity since the last Resegup race in 2019, a race that best represents the city of Lecco, was held. But seeing Lecco's Piazza Garibaldi packed with a thousand athletes at the start proved to us that the famous race that goes to the summit of Resegone, there and back, is finally back among us. Hurray.
But if you heard shouts of jubilation and happiness, it's also because Lorenzo Beltrami, our ambassador, has written his name in the race's roll of honor.
The Mandello runner dominated on a day of abundant sunshine, relentlessly outrunning the "thousand" Resegoppers who set out at 3:30 PM from the center of Lecco to reach the summit of Mount Resegone, a 24-kilometer climb of approximately 1,800 meters. Once they reached the summit, they embarked on a terrifying descent back to the city, immersed in a crowd that cheered on our Lorenzo with the same vigor as the last-place finisher.
The rest of the story is a magnificent sporting challenge, with the strongest peloton battling it out from the first climbs outside Lecco. Initially, Danilo Brambilla set the pace, attempting to separate the strongest group, including Andrea Rota, Sergio Bonaldi, Jean Baptiste Simukeka, Daniel Antonioli, Luca Del Pero, and our own Lorenzo Beltrami. At the summit of Mount Resegone, Bonaldi from Bergamo, a former national cross-country skier, crossed first, followed by Rota and Simukeka. But as often happens in trail races, it was the descent that decided the final standings. The race to the lake proved decisive, and the positions were reversed: between the Erna plains and the Stoppani hut, Rwandan Jean Baptiste Simukeka took the lead, with our own Lorenzo Beltrami refusing to give up and completing his sprint in the final kilometers.
Victory for Beltrami in 2h18'09” and his team Falchi di Lecco, with a 20 second advantage over Simukeka and completing the podium was Sergio Bonaldi in 2h18'48”.
"Winning the Resegup is a dream come true. It was my first race five years ago. I had prepared well for the climb, which I knew was a bit of a weakness, but then on the downhill I was in top form," Beltrami said upon arrival . "It was a performance that surprised even me, because I didn't think I'd win given the really high level at the start, but now that I can watch everyone from the podium, it's a great satisfaction."
For the record, the downhill was also decisive in the women's race: victory went to Martina Bilora in 2:52:00, followed by Anna Caglio and Elisa Pallini.
