In Jesolo, on the occasion of the Jesolo Bike Festival, we met the former professional Moreno Moserdoctor in communication design and technical voice of Eurosport alongside Luca Gregorio and Riccardo Magrini. Together with Moreno we talked about this 2024 and looked towards the next season: “It was a season with few surprises with the usual riders who dominated, especially Tadej Pogacar, we knew he would be strong but the further step forward he took was surprising, and this is not always good for the spectacle of cycling . I hope that Vingegaard can beat him next year at the Tour to ensure that a good challenge is rekindled, so I dream of 2025 with the great return of the Dane who is the only one who can currently keep up with Pogacar“.
In your opinion, Pogacar has reached its peak and therefore could now decline a little, or will it continue to have this margin over its opponents for a long time to come?
“I don’t know if he can still grow after reaching this level, I hope Pogacar can stay at this level and have opponents who get closer and closer.”
In your opinion, will Evenepoel ever be competitive uphill to the point of competing on equal terms with Vingegaard and Pogacar?
“In a direct clash I see it as tough, I think the only one who can beat the Slovenian is Vingegaard”.
Tiberi, Pellizzari, Piganzoli: from a future perspective, who do you think will be able to obtain the best results among the three? And what kind of results?
“All three promise well. I saw Piganzoli at the Giro dell’Emilia fighting with very high level riders and overall he had an excellent season. Piganzoli and Pellizzari were the two best surprises of this season for the Italian movement. Tiberi is already a certainty for me, he has proven to be solid, and is currently at a higher level than Piganzoli and Pellizzari. Antonio is at a good level, he is a rider who can give good certainty of achieving a top 10 in a Grand Tour, excluding the phenomena that are always talked about. In my opinion, in a couple of years he can also aim to win a Grand Tour, where Pogacar and Vingegaard aren’t there.”
What do you expect from Lorenzo Finn instead?
“I don’t know him well as a rider, but he certainly pedals well. He is one of those few Italian riders who can give us hope for the future, but the risk is that having few promising riders we will only cling to him.”
The serious problem is that the World Tour development teams are increasingly leading the Italian Continental and Professional teams to disappear. He also left behind a historic team like Zalf Euromobil. At this rate, is Italy at risk of having fewer and fewer young people and practitioners?
“I think so, it’s normal for this to be the case. In a movement in which there are no major sponsors or prominent teams the problem falls to the base. I believe that very little can be done, the problem is very big and mainly economic. Without large sponsors investing, like there once were Mapei or Liquigas, it is difficult to have a beacon of that type. It is normal for the Devo teams of the World Tour formations to be much better equipped than the Italian amateur teams. It’s sad to see a team like Zalf collapse, it takes away a piece of Italian cycling that made history among young people; and then I also believe that for a young person, being in a development team of a World Tour can be a source of greater pride, in feeling part of something big.”
For you, should Milan specialize in sprints like Cipollini and Petacchi or do they have a duty to try for Flanders and Roubaix? Do you think he has the ability?
“I think he doesn’t actually need to choose. He has the potential to win a race like the Flanders, the Roubaix or the Sanremo. Milan is a rider who has a lot of engine and therefore I don’t think he needs to specialize; he can try his hand at it without looking for a specialization, which is what a runner like Philipsen also does. Being a pure sprinter and that’s it remains a bit reductive for a rider like Milan. Tadej certainly acted as a driving force, leading the movement to not be so specialized, but he demonstrated that you can always go fast and on various terrains.”
From which Italian would you have expected the most this season?
“Based on how he started the season this year, and he was really going strong, I would say Ciccone. He’s a rider I respect a lot and who could achieve some great results, but above all I would say Bagioli was the big miss this year. Andrea has shown that he has some great class shots, perhaps he will return to his levels next season. Mine are not intended to be criticisms, I have also been a runner, and I know what it means when you can’t find the right pedal stroke, it’s not always easy to understand the reason.”
And who do you expect something from next year?
“Strength from Pellizzari, I expect consistency and a leap in quality from him to be competitive, at least in the crucial phases, in a solid manner with the best”.
