REPORT 2005

• Schleiz, 21st August 2005

• WE HAVE THE CHAMPIONS!
  
  
  Alessia Polita (600 c.c. class) and Samuela De Nardi (1000 c.c. class) are the first two European champions of the Female Road Racing Motorcycling.

  At the Schleiz round, Alessia Polita is first in her class, followed by Iris Ten Katen and Lydia Jean, while Nina Prinz wins the 1000 class, Ela Seestaller obtains the second place and the third place goes to Fabienne Migout.

EUROPEANS PODIUMS
Italians, Germans, French, Dutchs and Hungarians on the podiums today.
Italy: first in organizing a national female cup; the first Federation that strongly wanted this European Cup and the first movement that organized an international motorcycling female event providing the higher number of racers, home of the two European Champions: Alessia Polita (Suzuki GSXR 600) in the 600 class and Samuela De Nardi (Aprilia RSV 1000) in the 1000 class.
France: celebrates three racers on the podium in the general EWC classification: Fabienne Migout (Yamaha R1), European vice-champion in the 1000 class, third in Schleiz, Sandrine Martin (Yamaha R1), third in the general EWC classification in the same class, and Lydia Jean (Honda CBR 600) vice-champion in the 600 class.
Germany: wonderful host in this final race in Schleiz, where two home racers get on the podium in the 1000 class: Nina Prinz (Suzuki GSXR 1000) and Ela Seestaller (Kawasaki ZX10R), respectively first and second in this race.
Holland: even if it joins the Cup with only two racers at the present race, it reaches the podium with Iris Ten Katen (Honda CBR600), second in the 600 class.
Hungary: represented by just one racer, it still gets the third general place thanks to Petra Sovegjarto.
Slovenia: with two racers on the EWC, it doesn’t get any prize, but shows the future of the female European motorcycling, attracting the attention on the very young Tina Katrasnik, who, having turned 16 ten days ago, and at her first motorcycling race, is already sixth in the 600 class.

THE RACE
Since the free practices, the 22 years old home racer Nina Prinz – also present in the German Champioship - showed her colleagues, with her 1.32 best lap , that here in Schleitz it would have been very hard for all of them to keep her pace.
Pole woman, Nina has been the fastest during the whole week-end - free practices, qualifying session and race - with the only exception on the Sunday morning warm-up, when Alessia Polita got to score a better lap time than the German, showing great ability and fast learning skills (in Schleiz, in fact, the great majority of the racers were facing this track for the first time).
Lap times during the race have resulted sensibly higher than the ones obtained under the sun during the Saturday qualifying sessions. The Sunday morning overcast sky and a partially wet track had made the tires type decision extremely hard. At the end, most of the riders chose normal tires, except for De Nardi, Liscaio (front and rear rain tires), Polita, Romaniello, Picariello and Vita (front rain tire). This choice had proved wrong, since right before the race start the weather conditions started to get better and during the race the track had progressively dried up. Liscaio left the race at the second lap, while De Nardi and Polita have had hard time riding their unstable bikes during the whole race that they got to finish, though recording lap times definitely higher then the ones they could have scored.
A great start for the two Germans (Prinz and Seestaller) who left all the others far behind, followed by Migout and Polita with a four-seconds gap; in the followers group, Ten Katen, Jean, Sovergjarto, Roquette, Romaniello, Katrasnik, De Nardi and Voigt had exchanged ranks during the whole race. Romaniello has retired at the seventh lap, and Picariello three laps before the checkered flag. A show of bravery for Sandrine Martin: a very bad crash for her on Friday, resulting in her bike seriously damaged, but with the help of her team, many other people and the Clinica Mobile, she got to continue the racing week-end. Her participation to the race has assured her the final third place in the general Cup classification.

NUMBERS
Age: The youngest rider has been the slovenian Tina Karasnik (16 y.o.), while Ilse Roquette, the 48 years old German, was the oldest one.
The racers who has taken part to the European Women’s Cup are 35 (21 Italias, 5 French, 5 Germans, 2 Slovenians, 2 Dutch, 1 Hungarian).
Motorcycles: 9 Yamahas, 7 Hondas, 7 Suzukis, 5 Kawasakis, 4 Ducatis, 1 Benellis, 1 MV Agusta, 1 Aprilia.
Three victories out of three for Alessia Polita.

FUTURE
In Schleiz, at the Saturday meeting organized in order to allow the EWC racers to get to know each other better, the enthusiasm of those nice girls was contagious and caught the attention of the journalists, the photographers and the public. For all of them, the possibility to participate to an European female competition having the chance to measure themselves against each other, has been the greatest prize in this Cup and it also represents the spirit that supported it.
This is a sign that, as it happened in all the other sports that in the last decades have created the women’s sector, also the motorcycle road racing has achieved such a technical level, and has got the numbers, to bring us new competitions and championships like the one already consolidated in Italy, the new born one in Canada, the imminent French cup and, most of all, this European Women’s Cup, supported by the UEM, that we all are expecting to watch it grow more and more in the next years. A Cup with more races, involving circuits of the countries most represented by the women racers (along with this season’s ones, maybe French and Holland), with a growing number of participants, supported and encouraged by the various National Federations.

We would like to thank all the women racers who participated to this first important European experience, the UEM, the hosting circuits, public and fans, and all the people from all over Europe who supported us with their enthusiasm.