Italy has not managed to win one of cycling's Monuments since 2021, when Sonny Colbrelli crossed the finish line at Paris-Roubaix, covered in mud and with his arms in the air, unleashing tears of joy.
The country has had a 2022 without a single Italian cyclist in the top ten in these prestigious one-day races. However, 2023 has shown a glimmer of hope with two second-place finishes by Filippo Ganna and Andrea Bagioli in Milan-Sanremo andIl Lombardia, respectively. To these results can be added Matteo Trentin's tenth place in the Tour of Flanders (after contributing to Tadej Pogacar's victory) and the sixth place of an Ineos-Grenadiers rider in Paris-Roubaix.
Although for many, Ganna is presented as the main Italian promise for these races, Filippo Pozzato, in an interview with GCN, has mentioned two other names of Italian cyclists who could bring back to Italy the glory of winning a Monument next year:
“Jonathan Milan or Andrea Bagioli. Milan for Milano-Sanremo or Paris-Roubaix. Last year, before Milano-Sanremo, my favourite was Milan but he got sick one week before. I think Milan’s move to Lidl-Trek is good for him. I like Milan a lot, he’s a good guy, a grounded one, he’s not stupid, he’s smart. I’ve seen him doing some sprints that are not normal, and he’s also really young.”
After an outstanding performance at the end of the season, which included a victory in the Gran Piemonte, a second place in the Lombardia and a third in the Coppa Bernocchi, Bagioli, winner of the Milano-Sanremo in 2006, is ready to play an important role in the classics:
"I was surprised to see Bagioli on the podium at Il Lombardia. I thought he’d be in the first five. I know he’s very strong because I spoke to his coach in the week before.”
In recent years, Italy has struggled to excel in the big races as it used to. For Pozzato, the reason is simple:
"The level is not good, because we don’t have the members of the federation. For example, in Vicenza, we had a 120-rider union but now we have just 20 riders. With that quantity, it's not possible to get the quality. Great Britain in the past had only two riders and now has one of the best teams in the world. Australia had one rider and now has a WorldTour team. Americans were few and now they have a team too. Everything is globalising and so there are more possibilities for the others but less for Italy."
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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Filippo Pozzato backs Jonathan Milan and Andrea Bagioli as Italy's next Monument winners Check out the full interview 👇 globalcyclingnetwork.com/racing/intervi…
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