The hot weather did not miss the chance to be present here in Teolo today. 46 Celsius degrees and more gave the kick-off to this last run of the Eurotour 2017.
The welcome was warm as usual from the Roll Club organization crew drived by Sandro Morandin and while the last inscriptions went over, the riders had time for practice on the track all day long. In the whole day we had the chance to do more than 20 runs of practice fulfilling the needs of getting used of the track.
Opening ceremony started officially at 9:00pm with this unusual but typical run, all together, down the race road with the torch lights...and skates.
The procession finished in the main square in Teolo where we had dinner and some figure skating shows.
All the nations that attended the race here were presented with their flags giving an almost Olympic appearance to the ceremony. Tristan Cardillo is here, Carlos Paixao (2016 world champion) as well, Emily (2016 world champion) and Melissa Brogni too, the qualifications will be interesting tomorrow.
Once again, the brazilian armada may strike a perfect result placing athletes at the top of Open and Women category, but Teolo track is so peculiar that we could have some surprises. This track suits light riders with slalom abilities, maybe Tristan Cardillo will show some trick from the hat or maybe Vasek Cvancara will keep his dominance on this track as he did on 2016, only the race will give us a reply to this question.
Mikel Echegaray? Yes he’s here and there are 10 lugers on the line and Kolby did not miss the chance to be at the startline as well after his winning at Verdicchio Race last week. William Stephenson and Andrej Ilič it’s ready for the battle as well and we forecast a great racing on sunday despite of the timed qualifications of tomorrow.
