"I fear it will get much worse" - Matteo Trentin makes a gloomy prediction of Italy's future at the highest levels of cycling

Italy has one of the best sprinters (Jonathan Milan) and timetrialists (Filippo Ganna) in the world. Yet Matteo Trentin can't help but notice the decreasing numbers of one of the cycling's most traditional countries. The last big successes at Grand Tours belong to riders born back in 1980s and the new generation doesn't seem to be catching up anytime soon.

"Right now Italian cycling is not in the best place, but I fear it will get much worse. There is a risk that we will not have any more at the top level in 20 years," an honest and worried Trentin tells Danish TV 2 Sport.

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"It's a difficult time for Italian cycling. Years ago, cycling was mostly a European thing, but that's not the case anymore, and of course that increases the competition."

While in 2000 there were 128 Italians at the WorldTour level, 25 years later the number has significantly decreased to just 57. If we add the men with the passport of Italy at the ProTeam level, we get another 64 names, including Trentin. Which is still less than the number of WT-level riders just 25 years ago.

And with a broader base, the level of top riders will naturally become lesser too, even though that might be more of a consequence of the rise of nations like Slovenia.

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"On the World Tour, it's no longer just European riders, although of course there are still many, and that increases the competition. This has been felt in Italy as well."

Can Italy hope to turn the tides in 5 or 10 years? Most likely no. Trentin points out an even more burning problem of cultivating talent on the Italian peninsula:

"Being a road cyclist in Italy is extremely dangerous, and we don't have the infrastructure for it. And there is also no healthy culture built around rider safety on the roads in Italy. It is something that politicians need to address, and it is something that needs to be taken seriously," explains the Italian.

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