Antonio Tiberi recalls climbing with Tadej Pogacar at the Giro d'Italia: "It seems like he's not even struggling"
Cycling
Antonio Tiberi has performed strongly at age 22 this year finishing close to the podium of the Giro d'Italia and winning the youth classification. However, he recalls the Corsa Rosa as a race where Tadej Pogacar was on a class of his own and the comfort in which the now-World Champion was climbing next to his rivals.
“I can say that my 2024 was a year with some ups and downs. Luckily, up until my main goal of the season, which was the Giro d’Italia, everything went smoothly and it went very well," Tiberi said in an interview with Sky Sports. "The fifth place finish, with the Maglia Bianca, was an excellent result". In his first full season with Bahrain - Victorious he built up perfectly for the Giro, and seemed to be on the perfect path again at the Vuelta a España until he was taken out of the race with heat stroke.
"Then I also tried to do the second Grand Tour, the Vuelta a España 2024, and things were going well there too, at least until the ninth stage". However soon after he would win the first stage-race of his career. "After that retirement, I still recovered quite well and I also managed to win the Tour of Luxembourg 2024. I also wanted to close the season in the best possible way by doing well at Il Lombardia 2024, but an intestinal virus put me out of action”.
Overall however a strong year, one where he's consolidated himself as a trustworthy leader, who is also a complete and consistent stage-racer. For 2025 the goal is not yet decided: "We still have to understand what the main objective will be, between the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France. If it's the Giro, the ambition with which I will face it will be to get on the final podium". This will largely depend on the riders that will focus on each Grand Tour, which should largely be announced now in December.
Tiberi was also asked about competing against Tadej Pogacar, whom he saw quite a lot at the Giro. "What's it like racing with him? There are good sides and less good sides. The good one is that one day I will be able to say that I was there fighting with Tadej Pogačar, while he was writing history."
"The less good ones are the moments in which you are full uphill and you see him starting like that, when it seems like he's not even struggling. It makes you think that if he weren't there, you could emerge more, but that's the beauty of sport. Every discipline has its own character that stands out, we have Tadej”.
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024