With Letizia Paternoster Trek has signed another young talent to join the ranks of the new women’s team in 2019. Letizia Paternoster is mostly known for her performances on the track but has also secured three victories on the road this year. She’s only 19 and in her first professional season, but the young Italian has made the transfer from racing track as a junior to mixing it up with the big stars in elite road cycling with ease.
Letizia was one of the most talented junior athletes to come out of Italy in some time. She is a multiple Junior European and World Champion on the track and has won titles in numerous disciplines, including Individual and Team Pursuits, Omnium, Madison, Elimination, Scratch, and Points Race. In 2017, she also won both the road and time trial titles at the National Championships and went on to claim the bronze medal in the Junior road race at the World Championships in Bergen, Norway.
Letizia turned pro at the beginning of this year and is currently racing for the Astana Women’s Team. She won her first pro race, the GP della Liberazione, in April, but winning a stage and the overall in the Festival Elsy Jacobs (Luxembourg) put her on everyone’s radar.
She finished tenth in the spring Classic Gent-Wevelgem and ninth in Crescent Vårgårda, both WorldTour one-day races – impressive results for a neo-pro who just stepped up from the Junior ranks. And Letizia also won bronze in the U23 European Championships Road Race in July.
Letizia Paternoster: “I am excited and hugely motivated to join a big international team like Trek. My career at the Elite level has started pretty well this year at the Astana Team, now I have a new opportunity to keep growing and learning from a group of strong and competitive teammates.”
Paternoster will continue to combine both road and track racing and has big goals set in both disciplines.
“I am also happy that Trek will allow me to keep competing on the track, in addition to the road calendar, with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in mind. A new exciting phase of my career is starting now, and I look forward to giving the best of me. I am grateful for the trust Trek Factory Racing has put in me, and I am determined to reward them by living up to the expectations and bringing valuable results to the team.”
