Fausto Masnada "absolutely want to get back to winning ways" in 2023

Soudal Quick-Step team rider Fausto Masnada has persevered through a challenging 2022 and is now excited to embark on the new season. He will make his season debut at Trofeo Calvia.

"We have quite different programs with Remco , and I will have the opportunity to do my own race when I am not racing with him. I absolutely want to get back to winning ways," he told BiciPRO.

He further added, "Even if we follow a different calendar, we will do 80% of our altitude training together. The one before the Tour of Catalonia and also the one after, for example. A team-mate doesn't train differently from a leader: the hours in the saddle, the nutrition and the sacrifices are the same. What changes is that he is stronger", describes Masnada.

He will be aiding Remco Evenepoel in his bid to claim the pink jersey."I will clearly be a team-mate in the Giro, our goal is to win it and you have to protect your leader every day to achieve that. Will the Remco in the 2021 Giro be different from the one in 2023? It certainly will. In that first Giro he arrived in a very different situation. It was the first race he rode after his heavy crash in Lombardy, after 7-8 months without racing. To think of winning a Giro after such a long time and at the first experience would have been really an unachievable thing in my opinion," said Masnada.

He will also have an opportunity to excel in front of his loved ones during stage 15 of the 2023 Giro d'Italia, which will conclude in Bergamo, his hometown. "It will surely be an indescribable emotion to pass through these streets on the Giro. The stage takes place entirely in the province of Bergamo. It will be a crucial day, very difficult."

"And if Remco has the pink jersey as I hope, it will be a control stage that will require concentration and energy. However, the emotion of going over the Boccola twice and over all the climbs I did as a child in training will be indescribable", concluded Masnada.