Twenty year old Italian Beatrice Bartelloni joins the Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling team alongside good friend and mentor, Two-Time Road World Champion Giorgia Bronzini.
Born on the 5th of February 1993 in Staranzano, Bartelloni joins Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling on the back of a strong season with the Italian club team Verso l’Iride – Maccari Spumanti.
Beatrice (“Bea”) comes from a very close knit family, with one older and one younger brother. To show her love for family, Bea recently got a tattoo with her brothers’ initials on her shoulder. Known by her father as “Bamba”, Beatrice’s childhood nickname still sticks with her today.
“When I was born my father saw me, made a pun and said to my mother that I was too big to be a “bambina” (baby), so he said from now on we will call her “bamba,” the young Italian explains.
“Bea” actively participated in a multitude of sports in her early years, with a focus on figure skating, before finally making the switch fulltime to cycling in high school. The decision to pursue what was deemed a ‘male dominated sport’ in the eyes of her father was not greeted with great encouragement.
“After nine years I left the ice because elegance was definitely not my strongest point and I was too shy to perform alone in the middle of the track. After I stopped with figure skating at the end of my primary school I started a study in literature and art in High School as it always has been attracting me. At the same time I decided to pick up cycling after a friend of me asked me to try it. My parents were not very happy with my choice because it is a male sport in their eyes. But after they have seen I was enjoying it and had good results they accepted it. In fact, before now, nobody in our family was a “lover” of cycling, apart from my grandmother who never missed a single stage of the Giro D’Italia on Television.”
Today, Bartelloni actively races on both the road and track. 2013 will mark her second year as a in the senior ranks, and first year as a fulltime professional cyclist. To date, Bartelloni’s most successful results have come from the track and include a win in the Teams Pursuit at the 2011 European Track Championships and in the Teams Pursuit at the 2012 Cali World Cup. Bartelloni’s demonstrated strengths are in her ability to perform as part of a team, and this selfless quality is what sees her as a valuable addition to the Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling team.
“They say I am a fast rider, but what I know and what is the most important is that I am a loyal teammate and I like to collaborate on a common success. As a person, I can say that I am a friendly person and that I make friends easily. I can be stubborn sometimes, however I am mostly in a good mood but I can be a “tiger” too if someone is disrespectful or misbehaves themselves against my family, my friends or my team. I love my family and I like to eat pizza in my pyjamas in front of the television on a Saturday night.”
Speaking about her breakthrough year in the elite category, Bartelloni explains the challenges she has faced in making the transition from the junior category and balancing her cycling with her schooling commitments.
“I have heard enough from the “switch”, not only because as a junior I was still going to school but also because I had to do longer and more intensive training rides. I was part of a small team who all became first year elites at the same time, this was a big advantage as I had to compete and ride against riders who were much older and more experienced than me. In this sport it is not only about physical abilities you also need to have a good strategy and the gift to “read” a race.
“It was a difficult year with my graduation and the switch to the Elites especially in the first half of the season. After my graduation things went better and much easier for me. My results at the end of the season especially on the track gave me motivation to continue and to give my best in my new team.”
To be making her debut in the professional peloton alongside her long standing mentor and best friend Giorgia Bronzini is a great honour for the young Italian.
“I am very proud to be part of the Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling Team. It is a great privilege to race with girls of this calibre and am eager to compete with them. For me, it is a great opportunity to develop myself and to achieve great results. It will be a new and beautiful challenge and I will have the opportunity to learn a lot from the best.
“To be in a team with Bronzini gives me a lot of rest in my mind. She is a very good athlete and a perfect teacher. I have raced with her several times and I can say she is a fantastic captain.”
