State of the nation: Analysing Italy’s 2024 Highway World Championships groups
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The Italian Squadra Azzurra as soon as dominated the UCI Highway World Championships elite males’s race and fought with different historic biking nations for the rainbow jersey. Sadly, Italy is now simply one in all many contenders and has not received the lads’s highway race world title for 16 years.
The broader globalisation of the game within the final twenty years has regularly weakened Italian highway biking, with a lack of sponsors, smaller groups, races, and gifted riders. The perfect younger Italians normally to migrate to the WorldTour improvement groups, with no resolution in sight, be it from the Italian Federation or elsewhere, to cease the expertise drain.
Thankfully, the present era of girls has stepped up, which means Italy is without doubt one of the strongest nations alongside the Netherlands, Belgium and Australia and each Elisa Longo Borghini and Elisa Balsamo are main highway race contenders this weekend.
On the identical time, Italy as soon as struggled in time trials however Filippo Ganna’s skills have given them an alternate type of highway success as nicely, most lately within the type of a silver medal behind Remco Evenepoel final Sunday, with Italian compatriot Edoardo Affini claiming the bronze.
Historical past
Filippo Ganna received the World Championships TT title in 2021 (Picture credit score: Getty Photos Sport)
Italy’s success on the World Championships goes again to the origins of the game, with Alfredo Binda successful the primary skilled world championships in Nürburgring, Germany in 1927.
Since then Italy has usually received the rainbow jersey, with Marta Tartagni overcoming big prejudices to win a bronze within the ladies’s highway race in 1968.
Fausto Coppi, Felice Gimondi, Francesco Moser, Giuseppe Saronni, Gianni Bugno, Paolo Bettini, Alessandro Ballan, Maria Canins, Alessandra Cappellotto, Marta Bastianelli and Giorgia Bronzini have all received the rainbow jersey within the elite races, with others successful junior, U23 and time trial titles and medals. Certainly, Italy tops the Worlds all-time medal desk with 147 titles, nicely forward of Belgium (105) and the Netherlands (101).
The demise of the Italian males’s dominance could be seen in a easy statistic: Ballan was the final Italian to win the elite males’s highway race rainbow jersey again in 2008, when the World Championships had been held in Varese. Matteo Trentin was the final to win a medal of any color in the identical occasion, taking silver in Yorkshire in 2019.
Thankfully, the ladies and Filippo Ganna now fly the tricolore flag for Italy and the juniors and under-23 riders are sometimes profitable. Elisa Balsamo was the world champion in 2021, Elisa Longo Borghini was a bronze medalist in 2020 and is a medal contender 12 months after 12 months, and extra lately Silvia Persico received the bronze medal in 2022.
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In the meantime, Ganna received the time trial world title in 2020 and 2021 and has three different medals. Italy have additionally received a bronze and silver within the lately created Combined Relay race.
Lineups
Elite Males: Andrea Bagioli, Mattia Cattaneo, Giulio Ciccone, Marco Frigo, Lorenzo Rota, Antonio Tiberi, Diego Ulissi, Edoardo Zambanini, Filippo Zana.
Elite Ladies: Alice Arzuffi, Elisa Balsamo, Elisa Longo Borghini, Barbara Malcotti, Erica Magnaldi, Soraya Paladin, Gaia Realini.
U23 Males: Davide De Pretto, Francesco Busatto, Pietro Mattio, Giulio Pellizzari, Florian Samuel Kajamini
Junior Males: Andrea Bessega, Leonardo Consolidani, Lorenzo Mark Finn, Cristian Remelli, Enea Sambinello
The Lidl-Trek rider was vastly disenchanted when she struggled within the Olympic highway race and subsequently pulled out of the Tour de France Femmes. She recovered in time and was second on the current St Feuillien Grand Prix de Wallonie in Belgium, suggesting she is again on kind.
Longo Borghini’s lack of ending velocity has typically left her disenchanted and her greatest World Championships in third in 2012 and 2020. She is the protected crew chief for Zurich and the course fits her however she might have to complete alone if she needs to win the rainbow jersey.
Elisa Balsamo
Balsamo is Italy’s different to Longo Borghini, and her quick dash makes her an actual hazard if Saturday’s race is managed and assaults cancel one another out.
She suffered a nasty end crash on the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas in Could and needed to struggle again to safe a spot within the Italian highway and observe crew for the Paris Olympics. She lately received a stage on the Tour de Romandie Féminin and was second within the European Championships behind Lorena Wiebes. Balsamo may very well be a menace in Zurich, however provided that she will be able to deal with the climbs on the testing 27km circuit.
Antonio Tiberi
The Bahrain Victorious rider is taken into account a future Grand Tour expertise and was fifth on the Giro d’Italia however within the absence of a real crew chief, he has a protected function within the Italian crew for the highway race.
He managed to distance Mathieu van der Poel on the ultimate stage of the Tour of Luxembourg and win the general however the World Championships shall be a unique race.
Diego Ulissi
Within the absence of Alberto Bettiol because of a scarcity of kind, Ulissi is maybe Italy’s greatest hope for a medal.
The now 35-year-old Italian was junior World Champion in 2006 and 2007. He’s nonetheless a constant winner and factors scores and that’s the reason Astana have signed him for 2025. Nevertheless, he has not raced a Grand Tour this season and doesn’t seem like at his greatest.
Giulio Pellizzari
Italy as soon as refused to permit skilled riders to compete within the under-23 World Championship highway race, to guard their under-23 programme. They’ve flipped that rule in recent times as they seek for each type of success and have Pellizzari as crew chief in Zurich and WorldTour execs Francesco Busatto (Intermarché-Wanty) and Davide De Pretto (Jayco-AlUla) as alternate options.
Pellizzari rides for VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè however has been signed by Crimson Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe as a future crew chief.
He nearly received stage 16 of the Giro d’Italia to Santa Cristina Valgardena, just for Tadej Pogačar to move him earlier than the road. Pellizzari then requested Pogačar for his pink jersey as a gift for his youthful brother however is bold somewhat than star-struck.
Strengths and Weaknesses
The ladies’s Italian highway race crew is an actual medal contender with Longo-Borghini and Balsamo. The historical past of Italian World Championship success normally evokes crew unity and that may very well be an additional issue for the Azzurre in Zurich.
Longo-Borghini is arguably the standout Italian title however they produce other world-class riders and younger expertise who can carry out on the observe and highway and who’re arising via the ranks in readiness to inherit her function as soon as she retires.
The elite males Azzurri have little probability on paper in opposition to Pogačar, Evenepoel and Van der Poel and the remaining, however may decide to race for a medal. If a small group emerges on the ultimate laps, Tiberi, Ulissi Andrea Bagioli, Mattia Cattaneo and Marco Frigo would possibly but have an opportunity to salvage Italian satisfaction.
Italian biking has struggled since Vincenzo Nibali’s retirement however some inexperienced shoots and future skills are rising. They could need to race for non-Italian professional groups however will at all times race with satisfaction within the iconic Italian blue colors.
The view from Italy
Former nationwide coach Davide Cassani lately analysed Italy’s issues and supplied some motivational ideas in a column inLa Gazzetta dello Sport, utilizing Ganna for example and metaphor for his teammates.
“Ganna is a superb rider as a result of he is not afraid to lose as a result of he at all times places his status on the road and reveals he has the expertise, dedication and character to succeed,” Cassani wrote.
“Ganna ought to be seen for example for everybody, particularly the younger Italian riders, who maybe are struggling to interrupt via on the highest degree.
“Italian biking is struggling however the time trial medals received by Ganna and Affini ought to be an inspiration for everybody.”
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