Alpe Adria Cremona: Ercolani's hat-trick show, but surprises abound

Emiliano Ercolani blew the field away in the Alpe Adria at Cremona: three wins in two days in SportBike with the Aprilia of the Gradara team. It was the perfect shakedown for his upcoming CIV commitments.

The Alpe Adria, the continental series with its center of gravity shifting toward Eastern Europe and emerging motorcycling nations, stopped in Lombardy for the fourth round of the six scheduled this season. A weekend affected by scorching temperatures but featuring hard-fought races and many new names in the spotlight.

A welcome innovation was the Sprint Race, which in the morning stirred the waters in all categories with lightning, all-or-nothing duels. The winners were the usual Michal Filla (Superbike), Bartolomiej Moranski (Stock 1000), Oguz Tashan (Supersport 300), Emiliano Ercolani (Sportbike), Karlo Grsic (Stock 600), Alexandros Papageorgiou (Supersport 600) and Vaclav Bittman (Supersport Next Generation).

Michal Filla is the standout figure of the Alpe Adria, thanks to his repeated wins in the top class with the untouchable Ducati V4 R prepared by Barni Racing, a leading World Championship outfit. In race 2, however, the serial winner went down, paving the way for wild card Enej Krsevan, who had already hinted at his potential in Saturday’s opener by finishing right behind Filla. The Slovenian, arriving from the Moto2 European Championship, triumphed ahead of Dominik Buterin and Michal Prasek. In Stock 1000, victory went to the Greek Dimitrios Karakostas, redeeming himself after the misstep in the Sprint Race where he crashed while leading. Joining him on the podium were Bartolomiej Moranski and Leon Jurcak, albeit a fair distance behind number 777.

Emiliano stamped his authority on a perfect weekend, also winning race 2: three victories out of three. This time Loris Pedroni went out, opening up podium space for Oscar Nunez Roldan, followed by the ever-competitive Daniel Turecek. Victory among the Junior Sportbike went to Gianmaria Ibidi. Dramatic twist in Supersport 300: the Sprint winner, Turkey’s Oguz Tashan, was disqualified after being found without a chest protector at the end of the race, with the win awarded to Antonis Ventouras.

A “home” win also came in Stock 600, where a brilliant Riccardo Michielin got the better of Mario Fourthiotis Spiridon and Karlo Grsic at the end of a great battle, with the trio covered by just one second at the checkered flag. Fourth overall and winner in Supersport Next Generation was Vaclav Bittman, first in class ahead of Ladislav Veverka and Patrick Pascota. In the “classic” Supersport 600, it was Alexandros Papageorgiou who sealed a commanding victory ahead of Benjamin Baumgartner and Tomas Svitok.

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