Exclusive Interview - Alberto Dainese on ambitions for 2025, a new training approach and superstar teammates Alaphilippe & Hirschi

Alberto Dainese starts his second season with the Tudor Pro Cycling Team at the Challenge de Mallorca. At 26, he has already won stages of the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana and this season he's looking to turn the regularity of recent years into victories, in an important year for the team, which has been seriously strengthened.

In an exclusive interview with our Portuguese sister channel CiclismoAtual, Dainese spoke about the fact that he will be starting his season today at the Trofeo Ses Salines - Alcudia, a race where he came 2nd in 2024. About the Spanish race, he said: "It's the first race of the season, you never know exactly how you feel, or how your competitors are, or what your form is. I feel prepared and super motivated". He also told us about the changes to his sprint train, motivated by the arrival of reinforcements, "For this week, my train will be slightly different from last year, Robin Froidevaux will be my launcher, I'll also have the newcomers Marco Haller and Fabien Lienhard."

Regarding the calendar for the rest of the season, Dainese will be racing in Portugal, "After the Challenge de Mallorca, I'm going to Murcia and the Volta ao Algarve. Then we'll see if I get invitations to one-week races and grand tours, which could be my main goals."

Dainese also took stock of his first season with Tudor, a year of ups and downs, "In terms of performance, it wasn't my best season. I didn't start badly in Mallorca, but just before Murcia I crashed badly and the injury lasted until April. I went to the Giro, where I never found my form and, after that, another crash in Hamburg interrupted my season a month earlier than planned. But, apart from that, I've had a lot of support from the team throughout the year and I've found a good atmosphere, I get on very well with my teammates and the staff";

For this season he also has a new coach and the aim will be to do more explosive sprints, trying to optimize his 1.74m and 70kg: "From this winter I started working with a new coach, Erwin Borgonjon, and the approach has changed slightly: I focus much more on explosion and sprinting."

He also commented on the arrival of two impressive reinforcements, Julian Alaphilippe and Marc Hirschi, "They're two champions, each with a different character. Their arrival has undoubtedly boosted the whole team and I'm confident they'll do great things."