“What she says is not true” - Jury denies Paternoster’s claim of being hit during Italian Championships descent
CyclingTuesday, 01 July 2025 at 07:00
A day after Letizia Paternoster claimed she was struck by a
race jury car during the Italian Women’s National Championships, officials have
responded forcefully, denying the events as described and offering their own
version of what unfolded on the descent.
“What the Fiamme Azzurre athlete reported absolutely did not
happen: the girl was not dragged,” a race judge sitting in the back seat of the
vehicle in question told TuttoBiciWeb. According to the jury, their car was the
first to respond after a crash involving Vittoria Guazzini and was in the
process of overtaking on the right when the near miss with Paternoster
occurred.
“Along the descent, on the left, Vittoria Guazzini fell,”
the judge explained. “We started to overtake on the right, immediately after
there was a hairpin bend and Paternoster moved from left to right to widen the
curve. She braked and evidently we only grazed her. If things had gone
differently she would have fallen. What she says is not true. Her following car
was right there and if she had had mechanical problems she would have changed
bikes.”
He added: “After the curve Letizia screamed, I turned around
and saw that she was pedalling. If the wheel had broken she would have
stopped.”
The jury also recounted a post-race confrontation that they
felt resolved the situation. “Immediately after arriving, she said to us these
exact words: ‘Are you the one who pissed me off?’ The driver apologized, said
he hadn’t done it on purpose, and then Letizia left,” the judge recalled. “I
wanted to add something, but she simply walked away and we thought the matter
was closed there.”
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When the judge and jury are also the accused, it’s hard for the accuser to win.
Perhaps both are correct; it might just be a difference in word usage. When our 4 and 6 year olds scrap with each other, one says "she smacked me hard", the other says I just "stroked her a bit". Maybe both are kinda correct in their own words. I guess the jury and Letizia are both correct, each just uses their own language to describe the incident. Tranquilo Lety, in a month everybody will have forgotten.