21-year-old Farnese Vini-Neri sprinter has a near perfect record in his first full season
It may be a little premature to say it, less than a month into his first full season as a professional, but in Farnese Vini-Neri sprinter Andrea Guardini we could well be looking at the next Italian superstar. So far in 2011 Guardini has raced six stages of the Tour de Lankgawi, and won three of them, and with two of those stages finishing on the mountaintops of Cameron and Genting Highlands (a little steep for a sprint finish!) he’s had four opportunities to win; three out of four aint bad for the 21-year-old from the province of Verona.
“It's fantastic, and I have to say thank you to the team,” he said after his third stage victory. “But anyway I’m keeping my head in the real world, I'm only at the beginning.”
Granted, with most of the sport’s top sprinters opting to start their seasons at the Santos Tour Down Under or the Tour of Qatar he has yet to beat the best but, as they say, you can only beat what’s in front of you. He will undoubtedly face stiffer tests when he arrives in Qatar next week.
Guardini and the Farnese Vini-Neri team ride on bikes made by Mario Cipollini, it remains to be seen how much can emulate the legendary Lion King in his career.
After two tough days in the Malaysian mountains, the sixth stage was the second shortest of the race at just 106.7km; a constantly fierce pace meant that the course was covered in 2 hours, 14 minutes and 59 seconds, at an average speed of 47.12kph.
“Although the race was short, we rode every kilometre at the maximum,” said Guardini, “also because the intermediate sprints are really hard. In fact today I lost the points jersey lead [by 1 point – Ed] but I put all my attention into the final sprint, which was the most important.
“In fact I won with a good advantage,” he continued, “so thanks to my teammates who worked for me; Favilli and Miyazawa guided me in the best way in the final kilometres. But even if this is my third victory, I know that I'm only at the beginning, so I have to continue to work for the future.”
Guardini is still trying to keep his feet on the ground; a bit of light hearted fun within the team is helping him with this.
“We have a bet, if we can get to five victories, [team director] Stefano Giuliano will stop smoking. Since there aren't other difficult stages, we are putting our attention into arriving at this goal!”