Cattolica and Gabicce Mare share the “Gran Fondo Squali”, which has achieved its 7th Edition, joins, in among the top five GranFondo, Marathons in Italy, in terms of size and number of participants.
This marathon, organized by “Velo Club Cattolica” and by “Ciclo Team 2001 Gabicce Mare”, is an amateur Sporting Event dedicated to cycling, which takes place over the long distance. Every cyclist cannot wait to race!
The GranFondo Squali is now a fixed appointment, during the month of May. It creates the right connection between the seaside offers and the surroundings, allowing all the participants of the Marathon to live three days of sport, discovering a unique and different Territory.
The GranFondo Squali welcomes real sportive people, passionate cyclists, bike beginners and all those who want to test themselves on any kind of climbs and hills, more or less difficult; a special attention is however dedicated to the families and friends who follow the athletes, by activities designed for entertaining everyone, where the passion for bike racing is always in the spotlight.
During all the weekend, additional activities are organized – some of them in collaboration with the Aquarium – but also trekking and excursions, food and wine tours along the Conca River, test drives and games for the youngest with the best prototypes of mountain
bikes.
The hub of the entire race, as well as base camp, is the Shark Arena, located within the Aquarium: a space dedicated to the Expo area with the presence of over 70 exhibitors, not only from the sector.
The values on which the GranFondo Squali is based are three: routs, Safety and Eco- sustainable projects;
The itineraries are two and they have been designed for all type of Muscles: the short itinerary is about 85 km, with 1365 meters of altitude difference, while the long itinerary is about 135 km and 2180 meters of altitude difference.
Both itineraries cross two Regions and two Territories, a full immersion in the nature throughout Romagna and Marche Hills.
The starting point is the Aquarium, the arrival point is Gabicce Monte. This is the “Refreshment Point” for all athletes which also includes: a rich grilled blue fish, served with the typical flat bread named “Piadina”.
Many famous people attend as guests our event: the F1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella, the former cyclists Michele Bartoli and Claudio Chiappucci, called “El Diablo”, the motorcyclist Niccolò Antonelli, the former football player Fabrizio Ravanelli and the number one cyclist
Vincenzo Nibali, nicknamed “Squalo”. Godmother of the Event, in the last two years, has been Letizia Paternoster, a member in the Trek-Segafredo Team and in the Fiamme Azzurre Sports Group.