24/11/2023

"I want to try to fight for it one day" - Giulio Ciccone still holds Grand Tour winning ambitions

A winner of the King of the Mountains at the Tour de France earlier this year, Giulio Ciccone still holds ambitions of securing an overall victory at a Grand Tour.

“It has been a positive season for me from many points of view, but also a bit negative in other respects. All things considered, it was a good one and I rate it 8/10,” the 28-year-old Italian says in conversation with GCN from an A&J All Sports agency event.

Tadej Pogacar wants strong teammates at Tour de France: "With two leaders there are a little bit different tactics, but with one leader all the pressure is on that guy"

A star of the fast-developing Lidl-Trek team, Ciccone won't be the only man with Grand Tour-winning ambitions within the set-up next year. Notably, former Giro d'Italia winner Tao Geoghegan Hart has joined from the INEOS Grenadiers. “Definitely there has been kind of a revolution in the team, and with the arrival of the new sponsor [Lidl] they have bigger goals and they want to improve the team. So it’s correct to rise the whole level,” Ciccone says of the new-look team.

“Tao has already established himself as a GC rider, so by now we are two different kinds of cyclists. I still don’t know if we will do the same Grand Tours in the next season. First of all we have to understand our programs – we haven’t talked about it yet," he explains. “Let’s say that a Grand Tour general classification is one of my secret wishes. For sure I want to try to fight for it one day. Let’s see when I will have this opportunity.”

"Even if it sounds immodest: We were the greatest in cycling" - Lance Armstrong on the close bond he and Jan Ullrich share

Being a proud Italian, the Giro d'Italia naturally stands out for Ciccone. In 2024 however, many time-trialling kilometres mean it's perhaps not his ideal route. “Time trials are not the best for me, but for an Italian rider like me the Giro is always the Giro,” Ciccone analyses. “I love it even if there are too many TT kilometres. Now the Grand Tours are like that, Next year we will have gravel at the Tour and time trials at Giro, Every race will have its own characteristics.”

“I don’t mind about the route; the race is always made by the riders. I have seen bigger gaps in easy stages than in the really hard ones, and for the show sometimes it’s better like that," he concludes. “Honestly, I prefer hard stages because the short and crazy ones are always difficult to handle.”