"I'm the happiest person in the world right now" - Filippo Baroncini takes first pro win at Super 8 Classic

Filippo Baroncini won the under-23 World Championships in 2021, the same year he had a trainee stint with Lidl-Trek. The next year he turned pro but ever since was hampered by injuries constantly which prevented him from performing at his best level. Today he broke the cycle with his first pro win at the Super 8 Classic.

"I'm the happiest person in the world right now. The past three years have been tough with a series of injuries so for things to come good like this feels really special," Baroncini said in a post-race interivew. "We came here looking for victory today. Personally I came out of the Vuelta España feeling really good and knew I had the legs to do something in these races."

Among other results, Baroncini really showed his value throughout this year specially in the time-trials, but he couldn't transform this talent into a win. He was third at the time-trial national championships only behind Filippo Ganna and European Champion Edoardo Affini; and was fourth in the final time-trial at the Vuelta a España.

It was by using this capacity of riding solo that the 24-year old managed to thrive today, making into a select group and then launching his own attack with 14 kilometers to go, going clear of the entire chasing group and comfortably holding them off into the finale. Teammate Rui Oliveira then won the group sprint for third place behind, wrapping off a perfect race from UAE Team Emirates.

"I'm really happy with my performance and even more pleased and proud of the performance of the team who were just fantastic," he concluded, having taken the team's 75th win this afternoon. "It was a hard parcours but the team played their part to make the race hard and we could take the win."