Italian neo-pro looking to emulate his legendary uncle after an outstanding debut season
Moreno Moser (Liquigas-Cannondale) would like to emulate his legendary uncle Francesco and win the Giro d’Italia some day, tuttobiciweb.if reports. The 21-year-old neo-pro was speaking on Radio Manà Manà Sport’s “Ultimo Chilometro” programme, as he looked back on what has been a highly successful debut season.
Moser ended his first ever professional season in 26th place in the International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour, thanks to his two stages and overall victory in the Tour of Poland in July. It is this stage race success that Moser wants to build on as his career progresses, as he eyes overall success in the greatest Italian race of all.
“I hope one day to be a stage race rider,” he said, “and to win the Giro d’Italia would be something very important and meaningful.”
To achieve this however, the 21-year-old will be calling upon an apparently natural talen in the same discipline that saw Francesco Moser – his uncle – take the Giro in 1984. On a course that was apparently suited to him – as well as claims that the TV helicopter was used in his favour in the final time trial – Moser managed to overcome superior climber Laurent Fignon on the last day of the race in an eery foretelling of the final of the 1989 Tour.
“This year I tried to do well in time trials,” Moreno Moser explained. “For example, in the Tour of Switzerland, in the first race against the clock I was third behind [teammate Peter] Sagan and [RadioShack-Nissan’s Fabian] Cancellara.
“I’ve never raced many time trials, so I haven’t prepared specifically, but I’ve always got on well” he added. “I think that, if I work on it a little this discipline could become the key to winning a big stage race one day, as I’m quite a good climber.”
Having won the Trofeo Gianfranco Bianchin as a stagiaire for the green and blue team at the end of last year, Moser’s 2012 began with a solo victory in the Trofeo Laigueglia, only his second race of the season. The 21-year-old took the prestigious Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt in June, at the head of a Liquigas-Cannondale one-two, but his biggest result of the year was his Tour of Poland victory, despite a strong challenge from Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s local rider Michal Kwiatkowski.
“I got results beyond all expectations,” he said. “I won right away, just having turned professional, and this has surprised a lot of people. I was missing a bit at the end of the season though, not so much because of my legs, but more in my head; in the last period I was really finished.”
Moser’s outstanding results – particularly with the Italian Cycling Federation (FCI) policy to not select former dopers to the national team – earned him a place in the World championship team in Limburg, Netherlands. After riding in support of current teammate Vincenzo Nibali, Moser eventually finished in 74th place, but it was the experience of riding with the senior Italian team for the first time was the most important thing; particularly with the World championships returning to Italy – and the city of Florence – next year.
“Riding the azzurra jersey was an experience that will serve me well next year, ”he said. “Riding the Worlds was especially important for me to understand how it works, because the race is more or less similar to many others, but you’re riding in a different jersey. I certainly regret not going to the Olympics; I could probably have gone there.”
Looking ahead to 2013, Moser is still not yet sure of his programme, or his targets, but he hopes to do a three-week race for the first time.
“I’m sure that I’ll do one of three Grand Tours, but I do not know which one,” he said. “I’ll decide on the basis of various factors, and with the team. The Giro d’Italia, in my opinion, is not only good for specialists in time trials, because there are also a mountain time trial and several uphill finishes, so you need to to more than go fast in time trials.
“55km against the clock is a lot, but also you have to go fast in the climbs.”
Whether he manages to emulate his famous uncle Francesco in a Giro victory, or even one in the World championships, there is one record that the younger rider will not be looking to achieve just yet anyway. Francesco Moser is one of only two riders to have won three consecutive editions of Paris Roubaix, between 1978 and 1980 – with Octave Lapize being the only other in 1909-11 – but Moreno is looking toward one of the few Classics that his uncle never won.
Rather than the cobbles of northern France and Flanders, it’s on the hills of the Ardennes – and specifically those of Liège-Bastogne-Liège – that Moreno Moser is looking to win.
“It’s the one-day race that was my childhood dream,” he explained. “This year I raced it for the first time and it is still more than a dream.”