The first act of the 78th Gran Premio della Liberazione took place this morning. At 9 am, from Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 104 cyclists representing 16 teams faced 16 laps of the challenging 6-kilometer circuit in pursuit of victory. Succeeding the Olympic champion Chiara Consonni, last year's winner, and wearing the pink Coati-branded jersey on the top step of the podium, was Spanish rider Paula Blasi, who delivered a performance of high technical quality that allowed UAE Adq to repeat their dominance in the race.

The 22-year-old Catalan broke away from the group together with Silvia Milesi from Bepink after about thirty kilometers, then went solo 15 km from the finish, towards a triumph following her sixth place last Sunday in Chambery as a domestique for Erica Magnaldi. Meanwhile, the 18-year-old Milesi held on alone for a prestigious second place, while behind her the sprint was raging, with Sofia Bertizzolo third and Eilidh Shaw fourth: UAE with two athletes on the podium and three in the top-5. Fifth was the eternal Lithuanian Rasa Leleivyte from Aromitalia Vaiano.

After a series of victories in "minor" Spanish races in 2024, Paula Blasi this year joined the Development team of the Emirates: occasionally aggregated to the first squad, victories like Liberazione can project her ambitions upward. Awarded by Maria Spena, from the Board of Sport e Salute, by Roberto Pella, president of the Professional Cycling League, by the president of the Lazio Committee of the Italian Cycling Federation Maurizio Brilli, and by Maria Sofia Lazzaretti, wife of Mario Carbutti, creator of the women's Liberazione, the winner commented on her feat: "We knew we were the strongest and knew it would be a very tough race, so we let other teams control the situation in the initial stages, and then launched a series of attacks. I made the first one and it was immediately the right one, together with the young Italian athlete with whom we had an excellent understanding. Then I broke away personally because I didn't want to risk a one-on-one finish. The race plan? Sofia Bertizzolo or Sophie Van Rooijen in case of a sprint, Eilidh Shaw or myself for breakaways. I'm extremely happy to have achieved such an important result in my first year in a professional structure, now I just want to continue working hard to improve and prepare for Tour de l'Avenir and World Championships".

Then the excellent Silvia Milesi: "I had trained very well in recent weeks, but this 2nd place is truly unexpected and I'm thrilled! I managed to enter a breakaway with three UAE athletes and then follow Paula when she accelerated, I enjoyed every moment in this spectacular scenario and with fantastic support". Adding personal satisfaction to her performance, in the day's awards for the Regions Cup, the team representative of Walter Zini also won the blue jersey (best Italian), green jersey (KOM), and magenta jersey (best young rider), while the white jersey for combativeness went to Beatrice Rossato from Isolmant Premac Vittoria.

The race was started by Hon. Roberto Pella, ANCI vice president and president of the Professional Cycling League. "Undoubtedly this is a wonderful race taking place in a world-class historical setting. It's a high-level race with participants from many nations, testament to the great tradition of cycling in sport and culture. Thanks to organizer Terenzi and regional president Brilli for putting together an event of this level. We as a League stand by their side to give an important contribution to the Regions Cup, especially because we equalize the prize money for women and men: this is a significant value both technically and, above all, from a gender equality perspective, which is why we have involved not only the Ministries of Sport, Tourism, and Economy but also the Ministry of Equal Opportunities", said Pella.

Also following the race live was Marta Bastianelli, two-time Liberazione winner (2016 and 2017), now a technical collaborator of the Women's National Cycling Team. "We are here to support and observe the girls, which we always do when we can. I thank the organizer, Terenzi, for giving women the opportunity to race the Liberazione again this year. The course is very beautiful and also demanding: from experience, I know this is a race that almost always resolves itself in the final laps. However, I am convinced that we can think big for the future to make this race something even more important", said Bastianelli.

At the end of the women's race, over 300 citizens participated in the "Bike 4 Fun - donation ride", a two-wheeled walk open to all that crossed the heart of the Capital, organized in collaboration with ANED Sport and AIDO to raise awareness about organ donation.

The event enjoys the patronage of the Ministry for Sport and Youth, CONI Lazio, American Chamber of Commerce, and the support of Lazio Region, Rome Capital's Department of Sport, Major Events, Tourism and Fashion, Sport e Salute, Sports and Cultural Credit Institute.

Official Partners: Coati, DPiù, Co.Re.Ma. 3, Cavaliere Bici, SR Arredamenti.

Media Partner: Corriere dello Sport.

After her first victory, Paula Blasi, who lives in Llivia (La Cerdanya, Catalonia), said: "It was a crazy race. We were incredibly fast all day. It was still a very hard and tiring race. I wasn't even supposed to be in this race and then at the last minute the team called me. The team plan was to make the race hard from the halfway point, trying to break away. I was the first to try and together with another athlete we managed to gain ground. I felt very good, I was confident, I knew I had a strong team behind that would respond to any attack attempt and I followed my sports director Davide Gani's suggestions and managed to get this victory. It's my first victory of the year, my first victory with the UAE Team ADQ jersey, my first victory as a professional athlete and I really have no words to describe what happened, perhaps I still don't fully realize it, but I'm very happy".

Sofia Bertizzolo today led her young teammates and ultimately secured an excellent third place: "It was a beautiful race, very fast. The first attack immediately succeeded with Paula who was really very good. Behind, we controlled and in the end we set up the sprint perfectly. All the young girls from the Development Team were very good, and in particular Eilidh Shaw did a great job that allowed us to obtain these other two placings".

FINAL STANDINGS

1. Blasi Cairol Paula (UAE Team ADQ) in 02:29:16
2. Milesi Silvia (BePink-Imatra-Bongioanni ) + 01:08
3. Bertizzolo Sofia (UAE Team ADQ) + 02:50
4. Shaw Eilidh (UAE Team ADQ)
5. Leleivyte Rasa (Aromitalia 3T Vaiano)
6. De Grandis Michela (Team Mendelspeck)
7. Rysz Kaja (Roland)
8. De Vallier Elisa (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo)
9. Griffin Mia (Roland)
10. Swinkels Sylvie (Roland)