The Italy of the future is already here, and it wins. In top professional cycling we have been struggling for years due to the lack of a WorldTour team (the last one was Saronni’s Lampre in 2016) and important investments: to experience seasons as protagonists in the top world circuit we now need budgets of 40-50 million per year for at least six years (two cycles of the WorldTour license). The teams have become companies with 120-150 employees, with men’s, women’s and Development formations (the word means development in English: they are the youth ones, the nursery), the latter made mandatory by the UCI precisely to help growth from the bottom. We have been winning heavy medals at junior level on track and road for years. In the velodromes we have to plan the future of the golden quartet of Ganna and Milan for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, on the road we are looking for winning riders in the grand tours. What are the faces of the new Italy? We have chosen a group of ten boys and girls to keep an eye on in 2026. They are led by the two undisputed symbols of the Italian youth movement: Lorenzo Mark Finn and Federica Venturelli. The Ligurian is 19 years old, the Cremonese is 21. Italy pedals with them.
