Massari thumbs up Elite Cyclists as Italy tour ends

Engineer Giandomenico Massari, the president of Nigeria Cycling Federation, has thumbs up the eye catching performance of Team Nigeria at the just concluded Giro Marche Cycling Tour for elite women cyclists , in Italy ,insisting that the ladies ‘performed beyond expectation’ The 3-stage tour of the rugged Italian countryside ended over the weekend by an Invitational Time Trial at which the Team Nigeria demonstrated their prowess, with all the five athletes returning among the top 10-finishers.
Rosemary Marcus led the team, returning in 4th place in 25.16 minutes, two minutes shy of Italy’s Fidanza Arianna, who won the race.
Ese Ukpeseraye ,Kpa Tombrapa, Glory Odiase and Adejoke Durogbade respectively returned 6th, 7th ,8th and 10th in the 20-man contest.
Team Nigeria gave a good account of themselves in all the three stages and despite the tough, steep Italian terrains where the race took place.
Massari disclosed that 18 teams from 22 countries took part in the tour with Nigeria, Russia and Kazakhstan being the only national teams in the race.
Apart from Kazakhstan which is one of the top cycling nations in the world , there was an Olympic bronze medalist, a world track cycling gold medalist and other top rated clubs that featured in the 102km, 92km and 84km tour .
“At the end , everybody praised our team and s result we were invited to participate in the Individual Time-Trial race, where we also did very well.Of the 20 participants , the most favourite to win the world championship beat our girl by just 2 minutes” he said “To me ,the Team Nigeria performed beyond expectations for a week we were the toast of television stations and international newspapers , you cannot quantify that, unfortunately corporate Nigeria do not believe in cycling and potential it has.
Even a bank that was suppose to be part of the tour pulled out at the last minute.
You cannot quantify what that exposure would mean for the bank” the Italian-Nigerian citizen concluded.