After presenting Isolmant, Mendelspeck, Top Girls and BePink for the upcoming season, we continue our journey through Italian Women's Continental teams with BTC Ljubljana Zhiraf, a Marche-based team founded in 2016 in Loreto as Born to Win, which made a name for itself at the Giro Donne in 2021 with Anastasia Carbonari's breakaway in the stage from San Vendemiano to Mortegliano (caught almost 7 kilometers from the finish after a long solo initiative) and subsequently grew both through the synergy with Andrea Carlesi's Zhiraf team (for two years) and with passionate sponsors like the Ambedo mechanical workshops in Offida, and (since last year) BTC City, a commercial and entertainment center in the Slovenian capital. We'd like to recall how Born to Win, led by Roberto Baldoni, was the team that in 2019 welcomed Claudia Cretti in her transition to para-cycling after her serious accident two years earlier.

Looking at the present of this structure: those familiar with women's cycling will remember BTC alongside Alè in 2020 and 2021, before the sporting title was taken over by UAE. Determined to remain present in Italian women's cycling, the Ljubljana sponsor found a new partner in Born to Win in 2024, with a corresponding team name change. A union of forces that bore fruit, with a total of 22 victories across road, track and gravel, including Hanna Tserakh's Belgrade Grand Prix and road-ITT championships, Lara Crestanello's San Gabriel Gold Race in the Treviso area (see photo, left) and the remarkable results of Giada Borghesi (sister of Letizia from EF) winner of the inaugural stage of the Mediterranean Tour and Italian gravel championships, with other consistent placements that led to her jump to the World Tour with Human Powered Health in July.

To this are added, for example, the call-ups of veteran Urska Pintar to Olympics and World Championships, the aforementioned Tserakh to Paris 2024, and Greek national champion Argyro Milaki to Zurich, and briefly returning to para-cycling, Giorgia Serena's guiding role in Beatrice Cal's success in the Italian MTB tandem championships. Moreover, at the Italian gravel championships in Golferenzo (see photo, right) BTC Ljubljana Zhiraf achieved a double podium with Giada Borghesi winning and Carlotta Borello placing second, confirming the team's multidisciplinary vocation, which in 2022 and 2023 also had Sara Casasola among its ranks, now a prominent figure in cyclocross.

And 2025? Awaiting their "home" training camp in Marche, we discussed the situation with President Baldoni and sports director Giuseppe Lanzoni, coming from the women's UAE team and accustomed to shaping talents during his long tenure with Fanini's squads, then Inpa and Alè Cipollini. In the team car Lanzoni will share work with confirmed riders Samuel Agostinelli and Gorazd Penko, reflecting an Italo-Slovenian mix that is also evident in other staff areas, such as mechanics: Armando Montolmo and Matej Habinic. Among the masseurs, alongside Federico Filippi we find Kazakh Elena Sklyarova, mother of young athlete Yelizaveta.

Here's the roster. Pending possible expansions in the coming weeks, compared to 19 members last season, we now have 14: Gemma Sernissi (2000, from K2) Carlotta Uber (2001, confirmed) Noemi Eremita (2002, from Mendelspeck) Lara Crestanello (2002, confirmed) Giorgia Serena (2004, confirmed) Tanya Donati (2005, from Biesse Carrera) Camilla Lazzari (2005, from Breganze Cicloclub 96) Anastasia Carbonari (1999, cyclist-wise Latvian on her mother's side, but very much from Marche, in her second return to this team after experiences with Aromitalia Vaiano and Valcar-UAE) Russian Diana Klimova (1996, confirmed) Kazakh Yelizaveta Sklyarova (2005, confirmed) Slovenians Hana Zumer (2001, confirmed) Spela Colnar (2004, confirmed) and the 2006 riders, thus coming from the Junior category, Sara Pestotnik and Ema Modbersic.

"Just maintaining the level of international calendar and consistent performances from the past year would be a great goal. We have 3-4 really interesting athletes and we'll do our best to find a 'new Borghesi': it won't be easy, but why not dream, for example, with Carbonari? Despite some offers from abroad Anastasia decided to return here, in an environment where she enjoys maximum trust, to regain the serenity that could allow her to return to the World Tour. I'm not 'jealous' of keeping her at all costs; what I care most about is bringing her back where she deserves. As for races, among those circled on the calendar are Italian internationals like Mediterranean, Ponente and Liberazione, but I hope the Coupe de France won by Borghesi last year will increasingly open the door to French races, like Bretagne, Pyrénées, Morbihan. And then, at the Tour Femmes they must invite a Continental team (smiles, ed.)... jokes aside, it would naturally be nice to earn an invitation to the Giro Women: in 2024 we were the Italian team with most UCI World Tour points."

"We have a complete roster for mixed races, we lack a pure sprinter but we have Crestanello who can fight for the podium in a reduced sprint almost anywhere. We've already spoken about a 'racing DS' like Carbonari, in general I've seen an enthusiastic, aware, and super-motivated group to race aggressively. Eremita is an emblem in this sense, a model of work and concentration, just as I see Sernissi as very strong if she can overcome all her physical problems. Then there's a true 'wild card' like Uber, a climber who reminds me a lot of Realini: she has a real taste for suffering uphill, almost bordering on self-sadism, we need to work a bit on technique, but when I talk to her she's the one charging me up more than the opposite! Beyond individuals, however, it's fundamental to create a team. And this isn't just a cliché: we live in a robotic cycling world and in a world that struggles to truly communicate between people. I admit this scares me, personally I try to talk, talk, talk. Verbally, and not just about races and training. The mind is 40% of a cyclist."

To sum it all up, there's a thought that emerges loudly from Baldoni and Lanzoni's words: "Assembling a competitive roster for a Continental team is increasingly difficult. The equalization of women's categories with men's happened too quickly, three-quarters of the athletes were not yet ready. To try to reinforce and complete their rosters, professional teams call up women from our category as soon as they make two or three placements, they clearly dream of the highest levels and teams like ours are now the last choice. Plus, it's not easy to plan because we depend a lot on the invitations we receive, and until a month before the race, we're unsure if we'll participate or not. What we'll try to convey to the athletes is especially the grit that competing against 'advantaged' opponents must give us. And maybe manage to help them make a quality leap together with us, becoming Professional ourselves in a not-too-distant future..."