Her 2024 competitive season opened in Australia, where she had obtained several good placements, closing with the Tre Valli Varesine Woman on October 8th with a long rainy breakaway and a fourteenth place finish. Now, four months later, Francesca Barale is completing her preparation for the seasonal debut. "I've been in Spain for some time. I'm preparing for my first race of 2025: the Vuelta Comunitat Valenciana" explains the 21-year-old athlete from the Team Picnic PostNL to tuttobiciweb.

The cyclist from Ossola, multiple winner of the tuttoBICI Award in youth categories, last year competed in about fifty race days, participating in Classics and two Grand Tours where she supported team captain Juliette Labous (who moved to Fdj Suez this season). "It was a fairly positive season. I started well and finished strong after participating in the Giro and Tour with a well-defined support role for Juliette. Looking back, perhaps something was missing to achieve personal results, but this winter I've worked hard and well, I'm confident: I'll try to carve out space, seize personal opportunities and good results".

Francesca's race calendar is not yet fully defined, but after the opening commitment in Spain we should see her competing in some Classics: "My first goal will be to be ready for that block of races. I've understood that I can interpret them well. We have two or three team leaders, and I can sometimes be a support and sometimes more free to race my own race".

Although the time difference didn't allow her to watch the races, Francesca applauds the results obtained by Ciabocco, Barbieri and teammates in the Australian tour: "It was a positive start for the team. Now we'll need to continue like this and, why not, do even more in Europe".

Barale, who joined the Dutch team in 2022 from Vo2 Team Pink, publicly welcomes Marta Cavalli: "I'm happy to have her on the team. Every year the number of Italian women in the team increases, it's nice. We've done the first training camps together, and Marta is calmly getting into the team's mechanisms. I'm positive, she can do well".

She analyzed the past season, talked about her club team and told us about her upcoming programs. But that's not all, Francesca Barale also looked further ahead and when asked about the Blue Jersey, she said: "Right now there's a lot of discussion about the World Championships. This year they'll certainly be tough. In 2024 I missed the call-up for the World Championship in Switzerland, and this season I want to be prepared. I can't deny that I've marked the calendar, they will be a goal for the second part of the year. Right now the focus is on the first seasonal commitments".