Team Bianchi – Countervail launches in Milan

Bianchi officially launched the 25th season for their mountain bike team yesterday in Milan with a presentation at the Bianchi Cafè & Cycles in Milan, Italy. Bianchi welcomed Countervail as the second major sponsor of its factory racing team, unveiled the team’s roster and a renewed racing kit.

BIANCHI AND COUNTERVAIL: A REVOLUTIONARY PARTNERSHIP
Materials Sciences Corporation’s Countervail® patented vibration-canceling material system was introduced exclusively by Bianchi in the cycling industry in 2013.

Bianchi cooperated with MSC to develop the Bianchi CV vibration-cancelling system for the cycling industry creating the revolutionary, innovative, and award-winning road carbon models: Infinito CV, Aquila CV and Specialissima.

Bianchi and MSC now have decided to extend their close and winning cooperation with the aim to create the most advanced performance road and MTB bicycles and support different type of riding, thanks to the Countervail tuning process. Countervail’s sponsorship is a consequence of Bianchi’s strategy to revolutionize the MTB world.

“I want to thank MSC for their commitment to Bianchi and cycling by extending our cooperation into mountain bike racing. NASA proven Countervail technology tuned for mountain biking by our MSC and Bianchi engineering teams will revolutionize the world of mountain bike cycling”, Bianchi CEO Bob Ippolito commented.

“We at MSC are excited to partner with Bianchi in this new MTB path. We are confident that with Bianchi we will develop the best ever technology for mountain bike,” said Tom Cassin, MSC President and CEO.

ELITE – UNDER 23 TEAM
The Elite-U23 roster built for Bianchi MTB team new season consists of four bikers, two elites and two U23 riders, including a newcomer. Gerhard Kerschbaumer and French Stephane Tempier share the goal of entering the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and shining in the XC international calendar’s top events. Four years ago, in London 2012, Tempier placed eleventh, whilst Kerschbaumer was thirteenth overall and runner-up among U23. World champion in the Under 23 series in 2013, Gerhard Kerschbaumer’s last years’ highlights were the silver medal at XC Italian Championships, the fifth position at the World Cup XCO stage in Meribél (2014), the victory in the Internazionali d’Italia Series’ GC and the fourth place at the European Games in 2015.

Stephane Tempier is back to Bianchi MTB Team: the icing on the cake of his previous experience was the victory at Roc d’Azur in 2012. With the team managed by Massimo Ghirotto, the Frenchman had also topped the Internzionali d’Italia Series, as well as stepping up on National Championships’ podiums and entering the Worlds and World Cup XCO’s Top10.

Under 23 Jan Vastl and Chiara Teocchi round out the roster. Vastl is a former European Championships bronze medallist among Juniors and current Czech national champion. Teocchi kept on bagging prestigious results in the new series, after having won the CX, XCO and XCE (overall) National titles, Youth Olympics gold and silver medals in her last season among Juniors. In the U23 series, Chiara topped the Giro d’Italia CX general classification, being runner-up in Internationali d’Italia MTB’ GC and CX Italian Championships.

JUNIOR TEAM
Team Bianchi Countervail’s Junior team is made up of three bikers, managed by Andrea Ferrero: Marco Gozzi (born in 2003), 13 victories last year with Bianchi MTB Team’s jersey, and new-entries Simone Minotti (2002) and 11-year-old Fiammetta Allocca.

TEAM BIKES
Bianchi supplies the team with three top of the range carbon models: the new Methanol 27 and 29.1 SL and Methanol 29.1 FS (full suspension), projected for extreme performance, featuring a rigid and light carbon frame, with XC race-proven geometry.

The Junior Team will ride Methanol 27 SL bikes.

Team president Felice Gimondi explained Bianchi MTB team’s goals for the upcoming season, with a view on the future: “We will mainly focus on the cross country activity, in view of the Olympic Games, starting to race early in Greece to score points for the qualification. Besides Kerschbaumer and Vastl, we can count on Tempier’s comeback. The Frenchman is a multi-skilled rider, former third in the UCI ranking, but above all one of that good and easy-going guys we like. Last but not least Chiara Teocchi, who keeps on making us proud: she’s destined for great things also in the Elite series. From April, we’ll also work to strengthen the 2017 roster”.