{"id":17238,"date":"2017-01-10T12:10:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T12:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2017\/01\/10\/team-bianchi-countervail-signs-fontana-r5977\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T07:19:04","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T07:19:04","slug":"team-bianchi-countervail-signs-fontana-r5977","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/team-bianchi-countervail-signs-fontana-r5977\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Bianchi Countervail signs Fontana"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A London 2012 Bronze medallist, the Italian biker will race with Bianchi\u2019s MTB team for the next two seasons.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-47862900-1484050158.jpg\" data-fileid=\"873511\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"873511\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-62657-0-47862900-1484050158.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-47862900-1484050158.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><span class=\"italic text-sm text-slate-500 block mt-1 mb-4\">From left, Team Bianchi Countervail&#8217;s President Felice Gimondi and Marco Aurelio Fontana (Credits Bianchi).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Team Bianchi Countervail is reinforced with the addition of Marco Aurelio Fontana; he\u2019s one of the strongest and most representative athletes of the international MTB and cyclo-cross scenes. A bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics (and a 5th place finish in Beijing 2008), 3 World Championship titles on the relay team, gold at the 2013 European championships in Bern with the relay, and multiple Italian cross-country and cyclo-cross champion, the 32-year-old biker signed on to the team, presided by Felice Gimondi for two seasons, starting in February 2017. <\/p>\n<p>Fontana is a phenomenal biker, determined and versatile when it comes to the greater challenges, as he can adapt his technical and mental capacities to both XC and cyclo-cross courses. Fontana has received the most recognition for off-road cycling at the world level, garnering high visibility in the press, and he is expert on the bicycle products and technology. His knowledge will, in fact, lend a hand to the development of future Bianchi racing models. <\/p>\n<p><strong>FONTANA: \u201cAiming for the big finishes with the Methanol CV\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI view Bianchi as a powerful, high-class brand,\u201d Fontana explains, \u201cand I\u2019ve been always attracted to it. I want to race at the highest levels in the upcoming seasons, and Reparto Corse Bianchi is willing to give me what I need to do just this, starting with the new Methanol CV. I know this new model is engineered with a special carbon material that cancels vibrations, Countervail, and I can&#8217;t wait to take full advantage of its performance and ride control. The bike is beautiful and I like very much the frame shape. All the components are the top: we&#8217;re definitely well supported to achieve great results. I&#8217;m also impressed by the professionalism of the entire Bianchi management and staff, starting of course from Felice Gimondi, a legend&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-03692400-1484050157.jpg\" data-fileid=\"873509\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"873509\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-62657-0-03692400-1484050157.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-03692400-1484050157.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><span class=\"italic text-sm text-slate-500 block mt-1 mb-4\">Marco Aurelio Fontana (Credits Michele Mondini).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>GHIROTTO: \u201cFontana, an added value\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFontana\u2019s arrival gives an important value to our team, enriching it with history,\u201d Massimo Ghirotto, Bianchi Countervail team manager confirms, \u201cand I\u2019m certain he\u2019ll bring home results. His insertion represents further motivation and inspiration for the whole team, aiming for the best results in every race in which we participate&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p><strong>GIMONDI: \u201cCompetitive value and media visibility\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMarco Aurelio is a strong racer with a stand-out personality: I think both these aspects are important to help grow the competitive value and media visibility of our team. Fontana is a great communicator who will also know how to make the value of our Bianchi bikes stand-out with him,\u201d commented Felice Gimondi, President of Team Bianchi Countervail.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-85028000-1484050157.jpg\" data-fileid=\"873510\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"873510\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-62657-0-85028000-1484050157.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-85028000-1484050157.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><span class=\"italic text-sm text-slate-500 block mt-1 mb-4\">From left, Team Bianchi Countervail&#8217;s Team Manager Massimo Ghirotto, Marco Aurelio Fontana and Felice Gimondi (Credits Bianchi)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>The team bikes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Fontana will use the very new Methanol CV, the first mountain bike in the world created with the innovative Countervail\u00ae vibration cancelling technology. Team Bianchi Countervail also has the Methanol Full Suspension (29&#8243;) model available, designed for extreme performance and equipped with a full-carbon frame that\u2019s stiff and light thanks to Bianchi\u2019s exclusive technologies and the reactive XC geometry. For cyclo-cross races, Bianchi will make its Zolder model available to Fontana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A London 2012 Bronze medallist, the Italian biker will race with Bianchi\u2019s MTB team for the next two seasons. From left, Team Bianchi Countervail&#8217;s President Felice Gimondi and Marco Aurelio Fontana (Credits Bianchi). Team Bianchi Countervail is reinforced with the addition of Marco Aurelio Fontana; he\u2019s one of the strongest and most representative athletes of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[645,1894,1895,1893],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-17238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-bianchi","tag-marco-aurelio-fontana","tag-marco-fontana","tag-team-bianchi-countervail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17238"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=17238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}