A memorable season

Among these, the World Tour Team UAE Team Emirates, Trek-Segafredo and AG2R-Citroën, as well as the MTB Wilier-Pirelli and Canyon CLLTV Pirelli teams.

These teams have won countless events in 2022. All podiums are equally important to Pirelli, but six of these events make the Bicocca brand particularly proud. We refer to the Strade Bianche, Vuelta a España, Il Lombardia, the XCO U23 World Championships of Les Gets, the XCM 2022 European Championship, held in the Czech Republic and the DH World Cup in Mont-Sainte-Anne in Canada.

Slovenian road cyclist Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) opened and closed the Pirelli season by climbing to the top step of the podium at the Strade Bianche of March and by finishing first at Il Lombardia, the Autumn classic which traditionally winds up the Italian professional events. His Colnago bike was respectively fitted with Pirelli PZERO Race TLR and Pirelli PZERO Race in the yellow version: this tyre with the racing spirit teams up perfectly with the Pirelli SmartTUBE air chambers.

At the Vuelta a España in September, one of the most prestigious European cycling events together with the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, Mads Pedersen from Denmark (Trek-Segafredo) on his Trek bike accomplished the feat of winning three stages at a flying sprint and, despite a nasty group fall, managed to obtain the Green jersey. It is worth recalling that the first Pirelli tubeless tyre for road bikes, the PZERO Race TLR used by the Champion, is fruit of a technical collaboration between Pirelli and the team.

Simone Avondetto's victory (Wilier-Pirelli) at the XCO U23 World Championships of Les Gets and the title of European Marathon Champion assigned to Fabian Rabensteiner (Wilier-Pirelli) at Jablonné v Podještědí (Czech Republic) are the pride and joy of Pirelli's 2022 offroad palmares. When Simone's Scorpion XC RC crossed the winning line, Pirelli was certainly not alone in celebrating his victory: Italy had not seen a medal like this for ten years. Finally, great excitement all round for the European title won by Fabian Rabensteiner in the Czech Republic: the south Tyrolean cyclist achieved this feat by outsprinting his rivals after a race of over 60 km.  Moreover, Fabian is also the reigning XCM Italian Champion, a title he had already won in 2021.

Last but not least, Loris Revelli's sixth place (Canyon CLLTV Pirelli) at the DH World Cup of Mont-Sainte-Anne in Canada is one of the finest moments to look back on in 2022 for Pirelli (and not only). Revelli's sixth place was an achievement for the Bicocca brand – and for many Italian downhill enthusiasts. We use the term ‘achievement' not only because the athlete arrived just 1 second away from a podium position and in the company of eminent downhillers such as Aaron Gwin and Laurie Greenland, but also because it has been more than ten years since an Italian brought home a result like this in the DH World Cup. It is worthy of note that Revelli raced with his Canyon Sender fitted with the brand-new Scorpion Race DH in the M tread version  measuring 29x2.5, which were only officially launched in September this year. For Pirelli and for all those who have contributed to developing the first downhill tyre of the Scorpion range, such as many-times French Champion Fabien Barel, Revelli's achievement was a further satisfaction, also for the technical value of the R&D work carried out in the last year and a half.