MTB Guiding, Coaching & Camps Since years Lorenzo steadily notches up the ranking ladder, arriving in the top 20 only at 27 years of age.
Late bloomer you could say...
He was born in Germany to an Italian mother from the Sardinian mountains and a German father from northern German lowlands. The family was living in Cologne, including older sister Lucrezia. Except for the first 3 years Lorenzo did not grow up in Germany, but lived with his parents in Burundi/Africa, Ecuador/Latin America and Beijing/China. The last years of adolesce
nce he spent in Switzerland to finish school. Only then at age 19 he went to Italy for studies and received an Italian passport. Lorenzo started competitive biking when in the mountain biking paradise that is Quito in 1995. In his age group, he was hard to beat in XC and DH, into which Alfredo “Arete” Cobo had introduced him. Only in BMX, the likes of Emilio Falla (today world class BMX) were still ahead of him. After four years living in Beijing, where he mainly did street skateboarding, he restarted DH in another MTB paradise, in Scuol Switzerland in the Engadin valley. There he learned again from other disciplines and classmates, like Nordic skiing with now Olympic Champion Dario Cologna. His main influence was the schools snowboard coach, Austrian Hansjoerg Berger. At that period Lorenzo appeared on the German DH racing scene. Participated, out of nowhere, in the German DH Championships and came 3rd in Juniors. Reluctantly the German Association nominated the virtually unknown rider to his first World Championships in 2004 in Les Gets, ill-fated. Nonetheless, he joined a little team set up by young team manager Peter Sculzcinski, with expert Filp Polc and very young Sam Blenkinsop. Lorenzo played a leading role in the 2006 IXS DH cup. Swiss Diploma in hands, Lorenzo decided to move to Italy in 2006 where Romano Favoino supported him in his team “Playbiker”. That was particularly important when Lorenzo broke his Talus and was out for recovery most of the year 2007. This allowed him to study a little more and finish his first year in car design in Torino. Realizing that it would be impossible to do both, studies and sport, good enough to his ambitions, he took a sabbatical from design school and moved to Pila in Aosta valley another MTB paradise. In 2008 he won the Italian championship under 23, second only to Italian DH star Alan Beggin in the overall standings. Lorenzo did not go back to Torino. In his search for support he stayed with another short lived team, before he agreed to work with former WC winner Corrado Herrin, and joined the Blackarrows, a large group of friends and DH enthusiasts in Aosta valley. Within the Blackarrows, Lorenzo formed a little World Cup team. In 2009 he became Italian champion for the first time and has not let go since in five years. By this time, he had made a name of himself also as a writer of DH prose. Articles on: www.mtbnews.it. His mentor in writing was journalist Alesssandro Mano, who ran an independent MTB website before he joined La Stampa. Lorenzo’s results improved year by year but he had obvious difficulties to pass the barrier into the top 20 of the World Cup, not coming closer than 5% to the winner time in WC. He selected material according to quality and negotiating with sponsors. He changed winter training methods and included motocross. In 2011 he got a big boost by Exceptio Sport, a brand that made Lorenzo their point person in exploring the MTB market and developing a range of technical cycling socks. Exceptio Sport has then grown into Lorenzo’s partner and becoming the main supporter looking to become one of the players in the world of cycling. This helped Lorenzo step it up in 2012 and generally create a better and more professional training and racing environment. This allowed him to sign Oscar Harnstrom, a Swedish WC rider and put Jacob Mattsson as mechanic on pay role. Lorenzo felt he might have too much on his hands multitasking the managing and communication side of the business and wanted to concentrate on getting into the top 20. He therefore joined forces with another team and incorporated his WC-team with Walter Belli’s “GT 360 DEGREES” team for the year 2013. Aside the fact they both used GT bikes since years, the main reason the two Italian GT teams united was the needed role of an agency to lighten the work load and take care of the overall “look and communications” of Lorenzo’s team. The WC outfit has signed Swiss mechanic Alain Hall for 2013, which has been a key factor in securing Lorenzo’s protected Top 20 status and defending his 5th consecutive Italian Champion Title. Lorenzo’s results in in 2013 confirmed the new set up. With three 16° place finishes, he finished the season in 21st standings. A missed finals in Hafjell due to a concussion he suffered in practice pushed him back some positions. For the 2014 season he signed for Team Norco International.
