"I was riding Wout's bike and he was on mine": Pietro Mattio recounts his "moment of glory" at Le Samyn

The Ename Samyn Classic was a race Team Visma | Lease a Bike had been looking forward to with a notable excitement as it was the race Wout Van Aert finally made his 2026 road season debut. And, following in the footsteps of 2025 winner Mathieu van der Poel, the Belgian was in a seemingly good position to compete for a race victory. At least such was the case until, at 10 kilometers to go, Van Aert apparently rode into glass shards and punctured, effectively ending his race.

He was promptly assisted by young teammate Pietro Mattio who offered his own bicycle, but the front of the race had already been gone at that point, and Van Aert still required one more bike change later on, as the 184 centimeter tall (according to ProCyclingStats) Italian's bicycle was a tad bit too small for the 190 cm tall Belgian. Ultimately, he'd cross the finish line in 60th place, almost two minutes behind race winner Jordi Meeus.

"I had just been caught after the breakaway and was starting to get a little tired," Pietro Mattio recounted the incident for SpazioCiclismo.

Whatever was left of the bunch was preparing for the final moments of the race as one Visma jersey, Per Strand Hagenes, was still fighting to upset the reduced peloton with a long solo. "It was the last ten kilometers, Wout was our leader for the sprint because we still had Per Strand Hagenes in front and he was the second option."

Despite the omnipresent chaos in the main group, Wout Van Aert still had three teammates at hand at this point of the race. With Hagenes up the road, the situation seemed quite pleasant for the bees. That was, until the disaster struck and Van Aert punctured.

"I didn't even think about it, actually, I immediately asked him: 'Shall I pass you my bike?' He said: 'Let's see if the team car is there.' We saw that there wasn't, in fact there was a bit of uncertainty right away, then as soon as we saw that the team cars weren't behind him he said: 'Yes, yes, that's fine,' and so I passed him the bike."

The 21-year-old Italian has only just turned professional before this season, but despite his greenhorn status, he's already found his place in Visma's Classics team. After Omloop last weekend, he is nominated to ride his first Strade Bianche this Saturday, once again in support of Van Aert. Something he still finds quite surreal.

"I only thought about it later and said to myself: 'Damn, I'm riding Wout's bike and he's on mine.' Four or five years ago I would never have thought of that," he laughs.