World Championships Zurich 2024, Finn's joy: "The best day of my life"

Zurich (Switzerland), 26 September 2024 – After some dark years, something is moving in Italian cycling: confirming a very promising trend for the short and long term future is the sensational number reported by Lorenzo Mark Finn in the junior test of the World Cup in Zurich 2024 which left an entire movement astonished, as well as bringing back Italy a title that was missing from 17 years (when it was won by Diego Ulissi).  

Finn's Chronicle and Statements

  The first real protagonist of the day was the bad weather, which had already had a negative impact on the women's race, knocking out the Italian Jade Silo. At the male level, not surprisingly, the Denmark he runs the race keeping a pace that costs several slips, thinning out the group. Albert Withen Philipsen launches the first attack on the numerous steep sections of the route, but it is a flash in the pan: the flames, the real ones, are of Finn, who tries for the first time and in the second, 60 km from the finish, leaves a gap. With 30 km to go the group recovers, pulled by the usual Philipsen, which then accelerates on the final lap before ending up on the asphalt. Finn, always staying on his wheel, goes away and this time there is no one left to defend: the world title is his after 21 km of solitary escape. "I had not planned to attack alone, I thought that someone would follow me and in fact after a while I felt like I was going to explode. I was still feeling good enough to live the best day ever even when three of them came back. I saw that Philipsen he fell and I hope he's okay, but at that point I knew I could win". The analysis of the 2006 class continues. "The Spaniard didn't want to make changes, but I can understand it: I'm quicker uphill and on a course like that, with little flatness, I set the pace and even behind it was hard". The Genoese (with British origins on his father's side) is not lacking in awareness of his own means, and he presents his technical characteristics to those who didn't know him before today's success. "I ended the season in style and now I can finally rest, but with one eye already on next year. Now I have two seasons in the Under-23 to continue my development as a stage rider: I go strong uphill and I defend myself in time trials and I like courses like today's".

Valentin Paret-Peintre at Soudal Quick-Step

  From an Italian to someone in Italy he showed off last spring: Valentin Paret Peintre, At the stage 10 of the Giro d'Italia 2024, has established itself as something more than the younger brother of Aurélien, teammate at Decathlon AG2R The World Team only until the end of the year. From 2025 the class of 2001 will be linked to the Soudal Quick Step, thus giving support to the star Remco Evenepoel in the uphill sections after having shone at the 2024 lap at the service of Ben O'Connor.

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