Bari, great show at the Italian Faumcup championships

Great show in Bari

In Bari the first edition of the Italian Championships “FISDIR-FCI FAUMCUP”, the Italian cycling competition, reserved for girls and boys with intellectual-relational disabilities, which, for the first time in history, awards a competitive title to the participating athletes.

FAUMCUP was born from the collaboration between the Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation, the main expression of the Allianz Group’s social responsibility initiatives in Italy, the Italian Cycling Federation – FCI, and the Italian Federation of Intellectual-Relational Paralympic Sports – FISDIR, with the’objective of allowing also athletes with disabilities; belonging to the categories II1 (athletes with recognized intellectual disability), II2 (athletes with Down Syndrome), IIQ (all other athletes with intellectual disability not included in the classification established by Virtus – World Intellectual Impairment Sport), to perform competitive cycling activities.

Until now, athletes with such disabilities could only carry out promotional (skill tests) or demonstrative (forerunners in competitive events) activities. Finally, therefore, cycling is also among the sports in which such athletes also have a competitive perspective. With this operation, FCI wanted to create forms of activity that allow everyone, no one excluded, to become part of the world of two wheels.

Following a new memorandum of understanding between the FCI and FISDIR signed in 2021, the FCI has drawn up technical regulations that allow athletes with intellectual and relational disabilities, aged 16 and older, to be able to practice competitive cycling, filling a gap for an important segment of the sporting population.

The Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation, which has supported inclusive sports projects for years, supported the work of the two federations and immediately believed in the value of this initiative. In fact, after the’experience of the “SuperEroica”, the social cycling project launched by the Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation in 2022 that allowed for the first time also people with an intellectual disability to participate in L’Eroica, a cycling competition born in 1997 in Gaiole in Chianti in the province of Siena, the Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation married the proposal to create two national-level events: FISDIR-FCI FAUMCUP Italian Championships on road and off-road specialties. For the’occasion, è an ad hoc logo was also created called “faumcup”, a word born from the’union between the’acronym for Fondazione Allianz UMANA MENTE and the’English “cup”.

Maurizio Devescovi, General Manager of Allianz S.p.A. and President of the Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation, commented: “I am particularly pleased to announce this new initiative supported by our Foundation. With the “FAUMCUP Championships” we want to continue our commitment to social inclusion and ensure that people with intellectual disabilities can also practice cycling at a competitive level”.

Cordiano Dagnoni, President of the FCI, expressed his enthusiasm for the project:“&It is with legitimate pride that I greet the celebration of the first competitive event for athletes with intellectual and relational disabilities of the Italian Cycling Federation. With the May 5 event in Bari, a void is finally filled, providing for a’competitive activity for an important segment of the sporting population that demands equal dignityà and equal opportunitiesà. Cycling, once again, is proposed as an inclusive sport open to all”.

The FISDIR-FCI FAUMCUP Italian Championships were inaugurated on May 5 on a circuit set up on the Lungomare Nazario Sauro in Bari, thanks in part to the fundamental collaboration of the local Cycling School “Franco Ballerini”: a group of 23 athletes from all over Italy è challenged each other in the time trial along a course of about 2 km.

The youngsters put all their passion for cycling on the track: in a pedaling challenge, the winners for category II1 were Nicolas Lausi; Piergiorgio Pizzo; Daniel Antonelli and Elena Acquafresca for the female category; for category II2 Pietro Lorenzo Fiana; Davide Bosio; Andrea Merletti and Anna Casati for the female category; and for category IIQ Matteo Giuliani; Giuseppe Di Pierro and Andrea Lisco. The real victory è was però that of all the athletes, pioneers of competitive cycling for people with intellectual-relational disabilities.

In addition to the main race, the day left room for a promotional skill competition for under-16 members and a “pedaling” for hand bikes, to further promote inclusive cycling activities. Present in Bari will be Carmina Acquasanta, FCI Vice President; Silvia Epis, FCI National Youth Sector Technical Director and FISDIR National Technical Referent; Maurizio Luzzi, FCI Youth Sector; and Nicola Corti, Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation General Secretary.

The day in Bari è was a source of great satisfaction for the Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation, which saw among the top finishers in categories II1 and II2 three young athletes who in the past have participated in the social cycling project “SuperEroica”.

The second event of the FISDIR-FCI FAUMCUP Italian Championships will be held on Sept. 28 in Iseo, with the collaboration of the ’Gimasport Sports Association.