Matteo Moschetti: "Motivation today was stronger than anything"

Matteo Moschetti came out a surprise winner at the fourth stage of the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana after an unusual sprint and has reasons to be over the moon with it.

“This victory has a very special value. In my head there was a very strong will to do well, but the feelings of the last days were not the best. Motivation today was stronger than anything. I really looked for this win, because honestly I’m coming from a difficult period. The heavy crash in 2020, the slow recovery and a return in which I struggled to find the best condition to win and express myself at the best. Today I can put all this behind me," Moschetti said after taking his first win in 11 months, and only second win after his terrible crash at the Etoile de Bessèges 2020.

"Since a few days we had a fixed thought: to dedicate a victory to Pepinho. Mads did it a few days ago in France but the whole team, here in Spain too, wanted to do the same. We had promised it to us and symbolically to him. Our thought today is for Pepinho." Pepinho was José Eduardo dos Santos, a Portuguese mechanic that worked for Trek - Segafredo and tragically lost his life less than two weeks ago. A sense of unity was felt in the peloton has tributes to Pepinho came from all corners of the pro racing scene.

"As often happens in days like these, when everyone expects the sprint, the tension is dominant in the group. Starting from 20kms from the finish line, when the breakaway was caught, also due to some wind, there was a palpable nervousness. Everyone was scared that the group would split. It took a lot of cold blood to manage the final and my teammates were impeccable. In the very last kms, Mosca, Brustenga and Hoelgaard led me in the perfect way. At 1.5 km to go, in a corner taken too fast, a rider caused a crash with Markus and Marc [without consequences] involved. I narrowly avoided it and joined the Intermarche train, the more organized one. At the last corner, 300m to the line, I came out on the left side of the road while the bulk of the peloton was on the right. A choice that, at the end, rewarded me.”

Moschetti has another opportunity to strike tomorrow but will once again have to battle the likes of Fabio Jakobsen, Elia Viviani and Alexander Kristoff to name a few, but the pressure is surely not the same as it used to.