While her Italian colleagues prepare to face the mixed team relay that opens the grand weekend of Cyclocross World Championships, Carlotta Borello is traveling to Liévin (northern France) where tomorrow afternoon she'll tackle her first Elite World Championship, in her first season in the top female age category, after previously participating in Junior and Under 23 World Championships. She'll do so with a cross season featuring 13 victories, including the Italian championship in Faè di Oderzo: «This national title, obtained after a great duel with Rebecca Gariboldi who rode an excellent race, was somewhat unexpected - explains the Piedmontese rider born in 2002 - but I expected a good season and I'm extremely happy to have confirmed my initial impressions and intentions, winning several races and earning this call-up after participating in five World Cup stages.»

When you say you expected a good season, it means you had great confidence in both your qualities and the team you chose for your "leap among the big riders"

«Not all Italian structures can afford the international calendar that Cingolani Specialized (the same team as U23 Samuele Scappini and Junior Filippo Grigolini) guaranteed me. Moreover, under the guidance of coach Matteo Belli, who's been working with the Marche team for years, I enhanced my training by increasing long sessions. I should add that this winter I managed to leverage the base fitness I had accumulated during extensive road cycling in the summer.»

Road cycling you did with BTC Ljubljana Zhiraf: will you continue racing with them?

«No, I've decided to stay with Cingolani. In Italy, we typically have to register with two different societies to pursue cyclocross: to satisfy, quite rightly, both the "summer" and "winter" teams, you don't develop a homogeneous and optimized preparation for the entire year, as is possible in Belgium and the Netherlands. That's why I'm trying to maintain continuity by staying with a single squad: we'll need to carefully plan what program to create between road and gravel, and it's possible we'll even include some mountain bike races...»

...and you'll have time to think about it: on the eve of the Women's Cyclocross World Championship, what would be a good result for you tomorrow?

«Considering the extremely high level of current cyclocross and the difficulty of managing the pace set by international leaders, it would realistically be good to finish near the top 15. However it will be a race full of uncertainties, also because it's a course not very well known by athletes of the current generation.»

We can only wish the Italian riders Carlotta Borello, Sara Casasola and Eva Lechner to take maximum advantage of these "uncertainties" and give themselves and Italy a... world-class satisfaction!