Dear friends

My name is Federico Ciccotti, I’m 44 and I’m originally from Rome, Italy. I’ve been living in the UK for 9 years together with my family. In the last few years, I’ve been running quite a lot from smaller events like parkruns to bigger events like the London Marathon.

A year ago, I started riding a bike and got stoked by it. Last September I have attended my first sportive event and this year in May I’ve joined the ranks of the Ford RideLondon 100 riders.

I’ve recently discovered the UCI Gran Fondo world championship and the idea of getting there started crawling at the back of my mind to a point that I’ve decided I really want to participate! I’ve started pondering how an average-joe like me could participate and maybe have success in such an event. I found the answer being three things: Time, Personal Trainer, Funds.

Time

My target is to qualify to the UCI Gran Fondo World Championship in 2025 participating in the qualifying even that will take place on the Isle of Man in July 2025. I have more than 1 year to get better.

Personal Trainer

I have already secured a personal trainer for this task. Mr Francesco Trebbi will be my coach starting in July (https://www.3btraining.it/)

Funds

I did some math and I need roughly £3000 to cover for the basics: Training, even sign up, travel/accommodation, bike insurance with race coverage, race and training jerseys

Assuming I’ll qualify, I will also need to manage the trip to Australia where the world championship will happen in 2025 so I may need extra funds for this (I think +£2000)

You may imagine I can provide the Time and the Coach although I may need some help with the funds for which I have to ask for external help. Obviously I’m not expecting you to cover for the full amount, for this reason I will need a little bit of help from everyone.

I’m aware that my current status cannot be compared to athletes that have been doing this for years but I’m not a person that gives up. Few years ago, when I decided I wanted to run, I started basically from zero (in October) and by the next Spring I was able to run the Brighton Marathon in 4:00:08. Since that I’ve participated to other 5 marathons, some half and various 10ks.

I’m very proud of my Italian heritage, which brings me to my bike. I have a beautiful “Celeste” Bianchi XR4 with Campagnolo Chorus 12 groupset. Almost all the components on the bike are Italian (Saddle: Fizik, Pedals: Favero, Tyres: Vittoria Corse) but the wheels. Those are made by a UK company called HUNT.

I appreciate you may receive a lot of these requests. I’m proposing to join me in a clear project that is already in motion and that will go on. I’m asking you the following, do you want to believe in this project with me? Would you like to be part of this story so you would be able to tell how you contributed to make possible that a 44 years old dad, starting from zero, was able to participate to a world championship? If you believe the answer to these questions is yes, please donate to the cause.

If you are a company and would like to contribute, please contact me directly as I may have some interesting options for you.

Regarding the events leading to the qualifier, at this point I do not have a calendar yet. This will be agreed with the coach in the upcoming months.

Federico