Love Without Borders: Aurelia Cruciani and Sara Cabrini Team Up with Gradara Corse

Motorcycle stories: Aurelia Cruciani and Sara Cabrini will race, as girlfriends, with Gradara Corse in the Women’s European Championship and the Italian Women’s Championship (CIV Femminile).

The feeder series reserved for women are getting more and more compelling. Whether it’s due to the technical revolution starting this season with the “single-make” regulation based on the Yamaha R7 in WorldWCR style, or thanks to the welcome return of some of our best riders from the women’s motorcycling scene. In addition to 2024 Italian Champion Josephine Bruno, fresh off a deal with Team Trasimeno, the Women’s European Championship and CIV Femminile will also welcome back to the grid a couple… in name and in fact. Girlfriends on the same team for a double assault on both the continental and national titles.

Exactly. Riding the new Yamaha R7s of Gradara Corse will be two familiar faces in the CIV paddock: Aurelia Cruciani and Sara Cabrini. Partners in life since 2022, they will now line up side by side as team-mates for a one-of-a-kind experience, alternating between the Women’s European Championship and the CIV Femminile with an eye to a future leap into the Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship. Who would have thought that the much-maligned women’s championships would bring with them such one-of-a-kind stories?

For Aurelia Cruciani, a WEC regular with a few podiums to her name between 2020 and 2023, it feels like a return to normal. The 30-year-old from Rome wants to quickly forget a 2025 in which she should have raced full-time in the Yamaha R7 Cup, but which ultimately came to very little due to a bad leg injury suffered during pre-season. While it will be Aurelia’s debut with Gradara Corse, her better half, Sara Cabrini, will defend these colors for the third season (the second in a row). With Carlo Facchini’s squad, the 2021 Women’s European Championship Rookie of the Year came within a whisker of the national title in 2023, before a recent stint in the Aprilia RS 660 Trophy following a sabbatical in 2024. Three years on, the Florence native will have another go, this time on an R7. “A rider’s first rival is always the one in the next box,” goes a famous saying in motorcycling. You can bet we’re in for a show…

For the official photo shoot, Gradara Corse chose none other than Misano World Circuit to present Aurelia Cruciani and Sara Cabrini. A striking location that recalls the season-opening round of WEC and CIVF scheduled for April 24–26, but in a slightly different context than usual. Last Sunday, the track named after the late Marco Simoncelli hosted the “Misano GP Run,” a running event now in its 14th edition. The event drew a huge number of participants, including of course Aurelia and Sara.

With Aurelia Cruciani and Sara Cabrini expected to be key players in WEC and CIVF, Gradara Corse will also field a third R7 for new signing Yvonne Cerpa. Born in 2007, turning 19 next October, and after four seasons in the JuniorGP circus (first in ETC, then stepping up to Moto3 in 2025), the young Spanish rider has decided to steer her career toward production-derived racing. A smart market move by Carlo Facchini’s outfit, long at the forefront of developing women’s motorcycling, which will also line up in the CIV Sportbike with two Aprilia RS 660s entrusted to the confirmed Loris Pedrotti and Emiliano Ercolani.