{"id":313730,"date":"2025-08-03T05:26:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T05:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/313730\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T05:26:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T05:26:15","slug":"i-didnt-expect-a-win-straight-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/313730\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI didn\u2019t expect a win straight away!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

After more than two months out of competition, Giulio Ciccone<\/a> couldn\u2019t have scripted a better comeback. The Lidl-Trek<\/a> climber soared to victory at the 2025 Clasica San Sebasti\u00e1n with a searing counterattack on the final climb, outfoxing UAE Team Emirates – XRG\u2019 Jan Christen<\/a> and Isaac del Toro<\/a> in the closing kilometres of a race that saw some of the sport\u2019s biggest names on the offensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t expect a win straight away!\u201d Ciccone said at the finish, still catching his breath from the 230-kilometre war of attrition. \u201cI knew my numbers were good, and I\u2019d worked really well with the team. But two months without racing is a lot \u2014 you never know how the legs will respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Respond they did. After splitting the race with Del Toro on the Erlaitz climb with 35km to go, Ciccone rode with poise and patience, managing the cooperation with his breakaway companion even as the group behind \u2014 including Primoz Roglic<\/a> \u2014 began to stir. When Christen bridged across inside the final 10km and immediately launched a stinging attack, Ciccone held his nerve.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI had one moment of doubt when Del Toro and I were alone on the flat,\u201d he admitted. \u201cThere was still a long way to go, and it was tempting to ease off. But we kept pressing. Then when Christen came back, I thought, \u2018This is where it blows up.\u2019 I expected Del Toro to attack, but he started to fade. So I followed Christen, and when the moment came, I countered.\u201d<\/p>\n

That counterattack, launched just before the crest of the Murgil-Tontorra, proved decisive. Ciccone opened up a slender gap over Christen and plunged into the descent with a handful of seconds and total commitment. Despite Christen\u2019s best efforts to reel him back on the twisting run-in to San Sebasti\u00e1n, Ciccone held firm to take his second win of the season \u2014 and his first since the Tour of the Alps opener back in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was scared Christen would come back \u2014 I couldn\u2019t see him, there weren\u2019t any straight sections to judge the gap,\u201d Ciccone said. \u201cOnly in the final 500 metres did I finally let myself believe it. Then I just enjoyed it \u2014 this is one of my favourite races.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a masterclass in race craft from the Italian, who capitalised on UAE\u2019s aggressive tactics and showed both patience and timing to seal the twelfth victory of his career \u2014 and arguably one of his most satisfying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After more than two months out of competition, Giulio Ciccone couldn\u2019t have scripted a better comeback. The Lidl-Trek…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-313730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114963178107012826","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}