Cyclist
‘You can change from Giro to Tour, but you can’t change your wedding date’: Giulio Ciccone Q&A
How has your winter been?
It’s been a bit different because my off-season was a bit longer and busier than normal. I went to Japan for the Japan Cup, to Wisconsin for our first training camp, then from there I did the Tour de France criteriums in Singapore and Saitama. I’ll start racing a bit later, so winter’s been a bit easier than last year.
Overall, were you happy with how the 2023 season went?
I was a bit disappointed to miss the Giro d’Italia because I got Covid ten days before the start. It’s important because I’m Italian and my programme led up to it. That’s the only point of the year I can say something bad about; for the rest, it was really perfect.
You won the King of the Mountains jersey at the Tour last year. Did getting married just before the race help your performance there?
I think it was good motivation but honestly, that was just because my programme changed. We switched my schedule to do the Tour and I had my marriage in the middle. You can change from Giro to Tour, but you can’t change your wedding date! We’ve not had the honeymoon yet – there’s not been time. Maybe next year, I think we’ll go on safari or something special like that.
Where is your polka dot jersey?
On the wall at home.
So you have that, alongside a Tour yellow jersey, white jersey and a Giro mountains competition blue jersey [all from 2019]. What’s missing?
The most important one – the pink jersey! I’d love to have that just for one day. I’d wear it to bed. When I was young the Giro was everything and the maglia rosa is something special for me. That’s my real dream.
Do you remember the first time the Giro passed through your hometown of Chieti?
When I was five or six years old, I was with my parents in the middle of the town. It was a really bad day with the rain going full gas. The peloton arrived and everyone crashed on a corner. I started screaming, going, ‘What is this?’
Who got you into cycling when you were younger?
My father really likes cycling; he rode his bike as an amateur when I was a kid – nothing special though. In the afternoons I was always on the bike, never with my head in my books. From there my parents said, ‘Why don’t you try racing?’ I was really happy when they asked that and I started there. First it was a hobby, now it’s my world.
Do you like to entertain fans and be a spectacular racer?
I think it’s a choice. I really like to attack and be aggressive, but that’s natural to me rather than staying on the wheel and waiting.
I always think of the people watching on TV and I think if you show something for them, they’re really happy and they love you for it. That’s an important point because I’ve been on the other side in the past, watching every race, and I know you can pass something to them.
Last summer, Lidl came in as the team’s primary sponsor and there have been many new signings this winter. What has that changed in terms of structure, ambition and professionalism?
I think they changed everything. Now we’re in a big project, so everything is different, from the staff to the riders to the system. It’s not like we weren’t a good team before, but now we’re another level. It’s like a new challenge for everyone.
You’ve said before that your dream is to go for the GC in a Grand Tour, which usually requires racing conservatively. Is that the aim for 2024?
This season I’ll do the Giro and Vuelta. We have that big goal and I need to switch my head and race in another mode. But I think it’s also important to keep your own style in your mind; you always need that in critical moments. I can’t spend all my energy attacking everywhere or showing myself, but I don’t want to lose that feeling.
It was a difficult choice of programme too – I’m Italian and I love the Giro but I really love the Tour as well and it starts in Florence this year. But last year I missed the Giro and I still have a bad feeling about that. I want to race it, be a hundred per cent and show I can do something good again.
It has been nearly eight years since the last Italian Giro winner, Vincenzo Nibali. It’s not quite a crisis, but Italy is lacking a GC contender. Why is that?
I think in the last eight or ten years we’ve had a big change in cycling. There is a new generation of riders and everything is different. Everything: it’s like day and night, another sport completely. I think we have some really good riders in Italy but for the moment, we really miss a rider like Vincenzo.
I think we also need to be lucky. Now maybe other countries are luckier than us. I don’t think that we’re not good enough to build young riders, I think it’s just how it is now. It’s really hard to win a Grand Tour. I think there are only three, four, maximum five guys able to win one.
Can you win one?
It’s hard to say and I want to be realistic. Honestly, now I’m not able to fight with those guys. They have another engine. But I know I’m able to compete with guys who have won big stage races. I’m there on the list with them and need to fight and believe.
Career highlights
Age 29
Team Lidl-Trek
Notable results
2023
1st, mountains classification, Tour de France
1st, mountains classification, Critérium du Dauphiné
1st, Stage 8, Critérium du Dauphiné
2022
1st, Stage 15, Giro d’Italia
2019
1st, mountains classification, Giro d’Italia
1st, Stage 16, Giro d’Italia
Held yellow jersey for 2 days, Tour de France
Held white jersey for 4 days, Tour de France
2016
1st, Stage 10, Giro d’Italia
• This article originally appeared in issue 149 of Cyclist magazine. Click here to subscribe
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