Italian team pursuit winner Elisa Balsamo and Letizia Paternoster sign a jersey(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Italy's Letizia Paternoster celebrates the team pursuit win(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Elena Pirrone and Letizia Paternoster sing the Italian national anthem on the podium(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Italy's rising young talent Letizia Paternoster has joined the new UCI women's Trek squad for the 2019 season. The former junior world champion on the track will be embarking on just her second season in the professional ranks after spending this year with Astana Women's Team.
"I am excited and hugely motivated to join a big international team like Trek," Paternoster said in a team press release. "My career at the elite level has started pretty well this year at the Astana Team, now I have a new opportunity to keep growing and learning from a group of strong and competitive teammates."
Paternoster is a multiple junior European and world champion on the track and has won titles in numerous disciplines, including Individual and Team Pursuits, Omnium, Madison, Elimination, Scratch, and Points Race.
In 2017, she also won both the road and time trial titles at the National Championships and went on to claim the bronze medal in the junior road race at the World Championships in Bergen, Norway.
As a member of the Astana Women's Team, she had an strong season with an overall win at Festival Elsy Jacobs and top 10 performances at Gent-Wevelgem, Postnord West Sweden Vargarda, and she won GP della Liberazione Pink.
Paternoster joins the growing list of talent to have signed on with the new program after the team already announced Lizzie Deignan, Elisa Longo Broghini, Lotta Lepistö, Lauretta Hanson, Ellen Van Dijk, Abigail Van Twisk, Tayler Wiles and Ruth Winder. The team will be directed by former sprinters Ina Teutenberg and Giorgia Bronzini.
Paternoster will continue to combine both road and track racing during the 2019 season with Trek with a goal of competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
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"I am also happy that Trek will allow me to keep competing on the track, in addition to the road calendar, with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in mind," she said.
"A new exciting phase of my career is starting now, and I look forward to giving the best of me. I am grateful for the trust Trek Factory Racing has put in me, and I am determined to reward them by living up to the expectations and bringing valuable results to the team."
