Matteo Sobrero is the new Italian Individual Time Trial Champion after an incredible race against the clock to claim the first professional win of his career.

The 24-year-old produced a blistering time trial on the 45.7-kilometre course to win by an impressive margin of 25 seconds over Edoardo Affini and 41 seconds to Mattia Cattaneo.

“I have huge emotions right now as this is a very big victory for me. To win the maglia tricolore is a dream for all Italian riders and now I achieved this goal! That’s something special for me and I am super happy! Well, I came here really motivated after my performance on the last day of the Giro and after the recent Tour of Slovenia and I wanted to show my best in this race. Perhaps, hot weather played on my side today as I felt really good in these weather conditions and was able to push to the maximum. It’s an incredible day and an incredible win for me”, – said Matteo Sobrero.

At the second intermediate time check, Sobrero had a narrow margin of one second over World ITT Champion Filippo Gonna, five seconds to Affini, and 12 seconds to Cattaneo. The second half of the race was where Sobrero made the difference with the new Italian champion storming home to take the coveted Tricolore skinsuit against a field of some of the best time trialists in the peloton. 

Sobrero had marked himself as one of the pre-race favorites after a strong time trial on the final day of the Giro d’Italia, where he was the fourth fastest behind Gonna. The win in Italy continues Astana – Premier Tech’s dominance in the ITT national championships with Sobrero joining teammates Aleksandr Vlasov and Ion Izagirre following their victories in Russia and Spain respectively.

Another Astana – Premier Tech rider Fabio Felline finished fifth today.

Italian National Championships, individual time trial, 45.7 km. Faenza.

Top-3: 1. Matteo Sobrero; 2. Edoardo Affini (Team Jumbo-Visma); 3. Mattia Cattaneo (Deceuninck – Quick Step).

Photo credit: federciclismo.it