Giulio Pellizzari on attitude that cost him many victories: "For me the most important thing was to show that I was the strongest, then maybe I don't win"

Giulio Pellizzari will be one of the big names to follow who'll enter the professional peloton next year. Well, it's not exactly that the 20-year-old climber who finished second in a stage of Giro d'Italia lacks experience, but stepping up from VF Group-Bardiani-Faizané CSF to Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe next year will put Pellizzari, who is yet to win his first pro race, on everyone's radar.

Considered one of the best U23 riders in the peloton, you'd expect Pellizzari to win smaller races left and right, but he's actually yet to win in 2024. The reason is, as he explains in an interview for bici.Pro, his own attitude

"For me the most important thing was to show that I was the strongest, then maybe I don't win. When I was little I was bad, for me the goal was to show that I was strong. Even yesterday (the reference is to the Memorial Pantani, ed.) for me the race ended at the top of the climb. I was going flat out and when I turned around and had taken away all the strong riders I was fine. In Friuli it was the same, I wanted to drop Torres on the climb who two weeks earlier had won the Avenir with great numbers."

Did he regret not riding the Tour de l'Avenir in hindsight? "Now yes. Before no. The season would have changed a little, but the fact that Torres and Widar went strong would have stimulated me a lot. Racing among the under helps you learn to win. In Friuli while I was with Nordhagen the motorcycle relay told me: 'You won, come on, it's yours'. In the end I didn't win, the pressure is rising and you have to live with that. At the Giro it wasn't there, I was a rookie."

Next year, he'll suddenly become a man to watch - a role Pellizzari particularly looks forward to: "I'm happy about this, it's a challenge that stimulates me and I like it." The Italian' big goal is to achieve something young cyclists will look up to: "I want to become the rider who is the idol of children. From 2025 I feel like I can say that when I grow up I will be a cyclist, before I thought about it and didn't think about it, now I believe in it."