Trek Segafredo's Antonio Tiberi: “I felt a tangible jump in quality compared to last year"

The young Italian rider had a breakthrough performance on the climb to Mont Bouquet this saturday and show stage-racing potential.

“I am very satisfied with today’s result but, above all, with the sensations I had. I felt a tangible jump in quality compared to last year, I was feeling perfectly comfortable among the big guys. It was a feeling I missed last year and having it in the first race of the year gives me great confidence for the coming events.” Tiberi is only 20 years old and is racing his second season with Trek-Segafredo. Last year's results indicated that he was a time-trialist by specialization, however yesterday's performance showed that he is capable of more.

“Our goal for the day was to help Skujins to stay in the top ten overall [mission accomplished, Toms is still 8th]. When we reached the foot of the final climb, my feeling was still really good and I said to myself ‘let’s give it a try’. I was in the middle of the peloton in that moment and it cost me time to recover. When I caught the lead, I had just a moment to breath before jumping into the wheels of Johannessen and Vine. At 400 meters, on the last hard ramp, I gave it my all, trying to go solo to win. It didn’t work, but however I’m very happy with what I was able to do," Tiberi had to say regarding the final climb.

“Etoile de Besseges has been a crescendo for me. Day after day I have felt better and better. At the end, I’m also a little bit sorry for having lost precious time in the first stage, otherwise now I could have looked at the GC with a different eye. Tomorrow there is the time trial, my specialty: another opportunity to do well”.

After loosing time on the opening day the Italian prodigy is not in contention for the overall classification, however he is one of the favourites for today's final time-trial in Alès.