The 330-strong crowd brought the 5th edition of the Asics Malcesine Baldo Trail to a spectacular close. In addition to a record turnout—a total of 1,100 starters from 32 different nations across the three distances—the VMR Team celebrated new records in the 16km short trail set by Stefano Gardener and Alessia Scaini.

For the Trentino athlete from Team La Sportiva, it was a successful debut on the trails of Upper Garda, while the ASICS brand ambassador secured her third victory on this course.

With Saturday’s two long races (52km and 26km) in the books—won respectively by Rémy Valenti, Carina Helmreich, Francesco Lorenzi, and Martina Dal Bosco—330 runners set off this morning for the shortest, but no less spectacular, race.

THE 16KM:

The “Short” MTB race is certainly more compact than its older siblings, but no less exciting. It covered a distance of 16 kilometers with 1,185m of elevation gain. Athletes climbed to a maximum altitude of 700 meters and passed near the mid-station of the Monte Baldo cable car before plunging headlong toward the finish line in Malcesine. Looking at the clock, Stefano Gardener showed no mercy. He took a record-breaking win in 1h22’27”, ahead of the timeless Emanuele Manzi (1h25’57”) and the excellent Denny Ghidotti (1h26’26”).

In the women’s category, yet another victory for Trentino’s Alessia Scaini, who smashed her own previous record. The new time to beat for the women’s race is now 1h42’21”. Joining her on the podium were Alessia Pozzi (1h49’58”) and Federica Panciera (1h50’31”).

FOR VRM TEAM ASD TIME FOR BUDGETS AND NEW GOALS:

«Thanks to optimal weather, we can say this fifth edition went really well,» declared Claudio Arduini. «Despite an increasingly chaotic race calendar, we have grown in numbers and in the international reach of the event. This means we are working well. Now the goal is to keep growing, but step by step… without rushing.» Going into detail, Arduini continued: «As a team, we have great experience in road races, but we are relatively young in off-road events. That’s why we never wanted to go full throttle on MBT. We know the event still has room for improvement. A key step will be finding the perfect spot in the calendar. For next year and future editions, we will move it forward by one week. So, see you on the last weekend of April 2027.»

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Maurizio Torri | sportdimontagna.com