How the top talents fared in 2023: Piccolo sets a red exclamation mark with a bit of luck

On his employer's website, Andrea Piccolo answers the question of what he loves most about cycling with getting to know many new countries and lifestyles. However, he has not really benefited from the constant change of teams in the past. His CV already includes six different teams in four different countries within three years.

>> He is the one to watch out for: Andrea Piccolo

Since Piccolo switched to the World Tour with EF Education - EasyPost in August 2022, there has been some consistency. In 2023, he spent a full year in a team for the first time, and a professional one at that. And this is also reflected in his performance.

But it took a while for the 22-year-old Italian from Magenta to get going. After a strong start at the Etoile de Besseges at the beginning of February, where he was only beaten by big names in fifth place on stage 1, results failed to materialise. Particularly in his favourite discipline from his younger years, the time trial, Piccolo was unable to take advantage of the few opportunities he had to finish well.

Piccolo in red: Youngster secures the overall lead of the Vuelta for one day

It was only towards the end of the season that the youngster got into his stride. He was particularly strong in his first Grand Tour, the Vuelta. In the opening team time trial, he and his team finished just six seconds behind the winners from dsm-firmenich. He then used his good starting position on the 2nd stage to score his big coup. The time for the overall classification was stopped nine kilometres before the finish due to difficult weather conditions. Piccolo had chosen the day to join the day's breakaway group.

Despite a crash, Piccolo and Matteo Sobrero were the remaining duo to cross the virtual finish line for the timekeeping. However, as the Jayco-AlUla rider was significantly further behind, the red jersey went to Piccolo. Although he had to give it back a day later, this was enough to instil confidence in the young man from northern Italy. He joined the breakaway two more times on difficult mountain stages and finished in the top 20 both times. Before the Vuelta, Piccolo had only dared to break away once all season.

Conclusion: Piccolo has established itself, but can still improve

Overall, however, it was still not enough for Piccolo to build on the good second half of the 2022 season in the EF jersey. But consistency is something that most young professionals have problems with. Nevertheless, he has established himself in the peloton.