Inside the Crescent Vargarda, and Merida bike innovation with Sonny Colbrelli
Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) celebrates stage 1 victory (Image credit: Vid Ponikvar/Sportida)
InCycle goes inside the UCI Women's WorldTour at the Crescent Vårgårda, where Swedish rider Emilia Fahlin welcomes her competitors to her home country as defending champion. Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) talks about his debut in the WorldTour and his difficult Giro d'Italia, and Sonny Colbrelli shows us the special features of his Merida Reacto.
Fahlin describes the joy of racing in her home of Sweden, and what it felt like to win it last year. "It was something unbelievable really because I’ve done this race since I was young and I always come back to this village to do the race," Fahlin says. "You feel like you’ve given them a Swedish winner last year which for them was a bit special."
Bennett describes his first year in the WorldTour and coming into the Giro d'Italia with high hopes only to be struck by a virus before the race started. "Looking back at my Giro d'Italia, in all I think it was pretty good. I had a virus the first week and I lost a lot of my top end. I was pretty disappointed about that but I kind of handle the situation well, I went back in, trying to get the best result possible and stage 13 when I look to that, I don't know if I would changed much," Bennett said.
Colbrelli has been enjoying the new Reacto that his Bahrain-Merida team rolled out at the Tour de France. "I have been using the Reacto since the beginning of the season, since Bahrain Merida gave it to me, and I immediately liked it because I am an all rounder and this bike suits me perfectly. Now with this new framework, this new bike, they have made a big step forward," Colbrelli said.
