Third in the 2023 Tour de l’Avenir, he is in his second season as a professional. He outpaced everyone uphill and won the final classification. We will see him at Tirreno-Adriatico and above all at the Giro d’Italia
At the moment he is the most talented Italian runner. Of course, we have to find out more about him and he himself will have to test himself in more demanding races, but winning on February 10th and leading all his rivals in a stage with an uphill finish is a very encouraging sign. We are talking about Davide Piganzoli, 21 years old, from Morbegno Valtellina: on Saturday he won the queen stage of the Tour of Antalya and today he sealed the final triumph on the last day in the big city (almost 3 million inhabitants) on the eastern Mediterranean coast, famous also for the important Roman remains. These are the first two victories for Polti-Kometa, the Professional team of Ivan Basso and Alberto Contador who brought the historic brand of small household appliances back into cycling after over twenty years. And the results arrived immediately.
The words Fifth in the Tour de l’Avenir 2022 and third in 2023 behind the Mexican Del Toro (now pro with Uae Emirates) and the Marche Giulio Pellizzari (another talent: he rides in the Vf Group-Bardiani dei Reverberi), Piganzoli has grown in the Kometa youth sector: he is now in his second season as a professional. “He is a real talent, the Tour de l’Avenir is the testing ground for those who have to grow – says Ivan Basso, twice king of the Giro and general manager of the Polti-Kometa team -. Piganzoli brought the first victory of the new cycle of our team. For him the gesture of sprinting and raising his arms to the sky must become almost natural, an automatism. It is a process that takes time, but staying alone uphill, detaching everyone, for Piganzoli who is studying to become a champion, I consider it personality training. Now he must dare, he must take the measures for victory.”
Who is “I was born and raised in Morbegno in Valtellina, among the mountains, and this helped me grow in cycling – says Piganzoli, who won his first two victories as a professional in Turkey -. I am a climber and in 2024 I have a lot desire to show my potential. It’s wonderful to have two champions like Basso and Contador who see me, follow me and explain this profession to me, it’s a great added stimulus. The goal is to show myself on the climbs of the Giro d’Italia: I know it’s a big goal, but I like these challenges and I will give my best. I studied electronics, I was very passionate: in my free time I walk in nature, I like watching films and reading. I did cyclocross when I was younger, I use a mountain bike in the winter because it’s cold where I live, it’s fun. And then I really enjoy walking in the mountains and going on excursions.”
The team At the Tour of Antalya, Piganzoli also won the mountain jersey and the sprinter Giovanni Lonardi the points jersey. Basso again: “For us, getting results immediately was fundamental, we wanted to give a signal of the quality of our project. Now Piganzoli will race the Gran Camino in Spain (22-25 February), where Vingegaard will be there, then the Laigueglia Trophy (28 February) and the Tirreno-Adriatico (4-10 March). Then we will prepare for the Giro d’Italia (which starts on 4 May, ed.) with a three-week retreat on Teide in the Canary Islands, where we will be able to train on climbs of 25- 30 kilometers. I see great attention for our team, I believe it.” Sporting director Giovanni Ellena, the Piedmontese who discovered and developed Egan Bernal, drove Davide Piganzoli in the flagship. This season he joined Polti-Kometa, and Basso is enthusiastic about it: “he is one of the people closest to me, his inclusion in the team was really important”.
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