SCOTT Sports stars, Elisa Desco and Marco De Gasperi, were again in the spotlight in one of the most deeply stacked fields on the skyrunning calendar, Sunday’s Zegama-Aizkorri in Spain’s Basque Country.

Hosting the 2015 Skyrunning European Championships, the race also scored points for the Skyrunner® World Series, supported by SCOTT Sports.

Italy’s Desco-De Gasperi duo, both second in the race last year, were among the favourites.  The competition in the race was fierce, with the world’s top specialists in both the men’s and women’s field fighting for the podium. No less than 34 elite athletes on the 2014 ISF Ranking took part, with De Gasperi placing third.

De Gasperi started off strong in the lead pack headed by Romanian Ionut Zinca and Spaniards Aritz Egea, Pere Rullan, Manuel Merillas, Kilian Jornet and Italian Tadei Pivk. All the way to the highest summit of this iconic 42 km race which counts 5,472m ascent and descent, he held his ground. The descent proved a severe challenge, with De Gasperi unable to attack the front runners. “I just didn’t have it in me today,” commented a disappointed De Gasperi, finishing however, an excellent 5^th in 3h59’48”.  Race winner Tadei Pivk competed in the Scott T2 Kinabalu trail running shoes.

For Elisa Desco, 2014 Skyrunning World Champion, she raced to the final summit along with leaders, Oihana Kortazar, Paula Cabrerizio and Azara Garcia who went on to win the race.

Again, the descent was the decider. She gave it her all, possibly too much, and collapsed at the finish line in 6^th position with a time of 4h57’09”, fortunately to recover quickly afterwards.

Look out for the SCOTT Sports Desco-De Gasperi duo and the other top team athletes competing in the next Skyrunner® World Series events!

www.scott-sports.com

Race website

Skyrunner® World Series results (updating)

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