"With this victory, I will be able to convince the team to call me for the Giro d'Italia" - Enrico Zanoncello hoping Giro d'Abruzzo stage win can kickstart big few months

In a thrilling finale to the opening stage of the 2024 Giro d'Abruzzo, VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè's Enrico Zanoncello took victory by the narrowest of margins. 

With a bunch sprint deciding the day, Zanoncello was awarded the win after a photo finish was all that could separate the 26-year-old Italian with his compatriot, Matteo Malucelli. “I am very happy with this victory,” he said in a post-race interview. "I had ticked off this stage, it was a little hard and I had to hold on. The finish was a little tortuous in the last kilometres, then in the sprint I faced Malucelli and I managed to win."

"I ended up with Filippo Fiorelli who placed me and made me take Malucelli's wheel. Then I said to myself: 'Stay here, stay calm and come out in the last meters, you can do it,'" Zanoncello continued. "It's my first victory of the year, in Europe and especially in Italy, and I'm very happy. It's a confirmation more than anything else, because we were looking for it and it arrived."

With Bardiani getting their now customary invitation to the Giro d'Italia next month, Zanoncello is now hopeful of being able to secure himself a Grand Tour debut. "I hope that with this victory, I will be able to convince the team to call me for the Giro d'Italia," he concludes.