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• Spring Classics

Giulio Ciccone: My secret wish is GC at a Grand Tour

Italian speaks to GCN about his rollercoaster season, linking up with Tao Geoghegan Hart and other new Lidl-Trek arrivals, plus the pros and cons of the Giro d'Italia route

Gianluca Suardi

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Giulio Ciccone in the polka-dot jersey as King of the Mountains at the 2023 Tour de France

Giulio Ciccone, the 2023 Tour de France King of the Mountains, says that fighting for the GC in a Grand Tour is one of his secret wishes.

The Lidl-Trek climber had a really good season, but not one of the luckiest.

He started the year with a win at Volta Valenciana and with another stage victory at Volta a Catalunya in an uphill sprint against Primož Roglič (soon-to-be Bora-Hansgrohe) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step). However, Covid-19 stripped him of the possibility to race the Giro d’Italia, which started from his region, Abruzzo.

During the summer, Ciccone rose up again and managed to win a stage also at Critérium du Dauphiné, but his 2023 masterpiece was the polka-dot jersey that he was able to wear until Paris at this year's Tour de France . At the end of the season, however, he crashed at Tre Valli Varesine and he couldn't compete in Il Lombardia, the climbers' Monument.

“It has been a positive season for me from many points of view, but also a bit negative in other respects," said Ciccone, speaking to GCN at the A&J All Sports agency event last weekend Sunday.

“All things considered it was a good one and I rate it 8/10”.

• Read more: 'We like it as it is' – Ciccone questions need for change in light of new cycling league plans

A few months ago, 28-year-old Ciccone extended his contract with his team, Lidl-Trek, until 2027. The American squad have a big project in mind and have signed many important riders for next season, such as Tao Geoghegan Hart, Jonathan Milan, Andrea Bagioli and Patrick Konrad.

“Definitely there has been kind of a revolution in the team, and with the arrival of the new sponsor [Lidl] they have bigger goals and they want to improve the team. So it’s correct to rise the whole level,” Ciccone said. 

Among all the new riders in the team, the Briton Geoghegan Hart - winner of the 2020 Giro d’Italia - is, for Ciccone, the one with the most similar characteristics and the one that could share the leadership with him in the Grand Tours.

“Tao has already established himself as a GC rider, so by now we are two different kinds of cyclists,” he said. “I still don’t know if we will do the same Grand Tours in the next season First of all we have to understand our programs – we haven’t talked about it yet”.

After conquering three stages at Giro d’Italia - in 2016, 2019 and 2022 - and the mountains classification at the 2023 Tour de France, Ciccone now wants to try to fight for the GC in one of the three Grand Tours.

“Let’s say that a Grand Tour general classification is one of my secret wishes. For sure I want to try to fight for it one day. Let’s see when I will have this opportunity”.

Next year’s Giro d’Italia route has a lot of flat time trialling - 68 kilometres - which is not the favoured discipline for a pure climber like Ciccone, but his love for the Corsa Rosa is still fiery.

“Time trials are not the best for me, but for an Italian rider like me the Giro is always the Giro,” Ciccone said.

“I love it even if there are too many TT kilometres. Now the Grand Tours are like that, Next year we will have gravel at the Tour and time trials at Giro, Every race will have its own characteristics”.

The third week of the Giro d'Italia is usually full of really hard stages with a lot of huge mountains to climb, but not in 2024. Despite this, the Lidl-Trek rider thinks that the final week is not too easy and could offer surprises.

“When the elevation profile of a stage is easy, they are always the hardest days when everything happens,” Ciccone argued.

“I don’t mind about the route; the race is always made by the riders. I have seen bigger gaps in easy stages than in the really hard ones, and for the show sometimes it’s better like that.

“Honestly, I prefer hard stages because the short and crazy ones are always difficult to handle.”

• Nationality United States of America
• Founded 2011
• Team Principal Luca Guercilena
• UCI Code LTK
• Bike Sponsor Trek

Giulio Ciccone

• Team Lidl-Trek
• Nationality Italy
• UCI Wins 10
• Height 1.76m

Trek is a bicycle manufacturer based in Wisconsin, USA. The company produces a range of bikes, as well as clothing, equipment and tools.

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Gianluca is a journalist and cycling enthusiast that takes care of the Italian content for GCN

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Giulio Ciccone

Giulio gave one of the performances of the year last July, winning the iconic polka-dot jersey as the King of the Mountains at the 2023 Tour de France. The accomplishment highlighted everything that makes "Cicco" special: His immense talent, yes, but also the reckless joy with which he takes on the most fearsome climbs in the world. He has now won the climber's jersey at the Tour and the Giro d'Italia (2019), to go with stage wins at the Giro (2022), La Comunitat Valenciana (2023), Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (2023) and the Critérium du Dauphiné (2023). Cicco is a fan favorite for good reason. His love of cycling is infectious.

Questions / Answers

If you could be any animal, what would you be and why.

A Lion. Because it seems a calm animal, but when it's called to action he's super fierce.

What’s the best advice you were ever given? Who gave it?

Family, in any situation, is always the first thing and never neglected. My Mother.

If your house was on fire and you could only save one material possession what would it be?

The yellow jersey I wore at the Tour de France. Now it's on the living room wall.

What is your favorite Bontrager or Trek equipment?

My Trek Emonda.

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Featured in

Cicco, here we go! Giulio makes his return at Tour de Romandie

Ciccone is progressing well, allowing Lidl-Trek to plan his upcoming races. First, a return in Switzerland, followed by a double Grand Tour program at Tour de France and the Vuelta a España

Giulio Ciccone is back in training

After the stop imposed by his surgery in early February, Cicco can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, however, a first decision on his racing schedule has been taken: no Giro d'Italia.

Four-week stop from training for Ciccone

The Italian rider undergoes surgery for a cyst

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Giulio Ciccone: "It was a big fight"

"We had one plan and we did a terrific job to execute it. I need to thank all my team-mates. I think they did something crazy right from the start. When riders like Mads Pedersen and Mattias Skjelmose decide to do something, you have to stay in the wheels. We did everything perfect to hold on to this jersey, in the hills and in the valley. It was a big fight. We got what we wanted. I'm really happy."

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Final Tour de France 2023 KOM Classification | Giulio Ciccone saves KOM jersey against GC riders' assault

Giulio Ciccone was the winner of the Tour de France 's KOM classification. Scoring the most points in the climbs throughout the three weeks, one of the few riders who had clear ambitions beat the GC riders with a combination of smart tactics and great climbing legs.

The win was not without a big challenge. A few riders chased points in the first half of the race, Neilson Powless took the KOM jersey in the first day and then kept chasing points with several breakaways, eventually holding the jersey until stage 13 - with the exception of stage 5 where Felix Gall briefly wore the polka dots after his breakaway features. Stage 14 saw Jonas Vingegaard take over the lead of the classification, being the reigning champion of 2022.

Official: Giulio Ciccone will win the Tour de France KOM jersey if he reaches Paris

However Ciccone, who truly focused on that classification, took over on stage 15. The final week saw him fight for all points available, which then saw him struggle on the final climbs of the day where both Felix Gall and Jonas Vingegaard would win points. However the Italian managed to score enough points to maintain his lead in the front of the competition, achieving one of his pre-race goals.

Tour de France 2023 final KOM classification:

1 - Giulio Ciccone with 106 points

2 - Felix Gall with 92 points

3 - Jonas Vingegaard with 89 points

4 - Neilson Powless with 58 points

5 - Tadej Pogacar with 55 points

6 - Simon Yates with 44 points

7 - Tobias Johanessen with 38 points

8 - Jai Hindley with 31 points

9 - Michal Kwiaktowski with 30 points

10 - Mattias Skjelmose with 29 points

Prize Money Tour de France 2023 - Full guide to how €2.308.029 will be split between teams

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UNDER_ARTICLE

Sat 20 Apr 2024

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Tour de France 2023: Ciccone retains KOM lead

KOM competition stage 17 1. Giulio Ciccone 88 2. Felix Gall 82 3. Jonas Vingegaard 81 4. Neilson Powless 58 5. Tadej Pogacar 49 6. Wout van Aert 47 7. Simon Yates 40 8. Tobias Halland Johannessen 38 9. Jai Hindley 31 10. Michal Kwiatkowski 30

Col des Saises – 13.4 kilometres at 5.4% – at kilometre 28.4 – category 1

1. Giulio Ciccone 10 2. Mattias Skjelmose 8 3. Felix Gall 6 4. Simon Yates 4 5. Lawson Craddock 2 6. Chris Harper 1

Cormet de Roselend – 19.9 kilometres at 6% – at kilometre 66.7 – category 1

1. Giulio Ciccone 10 2. Mattias Skjelmose 8 3. Jack Haig 6 4. Felix Gall 4 5. Ben O’Connor 2 6. Nans Peters 1

Côte de Longefoy – 6.6 kilometres at 7.5% – at kilometre 105.7 – category 2

1. Giulio Ciccone 5 2. Mattias Skjelmose 3 3. Lawson Craddock 2 4. Jack Haig 1

Col de la Loze – 28.1 kilometres at 6% – at kilometre 159.6 – HC

1. Felix Gall 40 2. Simon Yates 30 3. Jonas Vingegaard 24 4. Pello Bilbao 20 5. David Gaudu 16 6. Chris Harper 12 7. Tobias Halland Johannessen 8 8. Wilco Kelderman 4

Another interesting read: points competition stage 17 .

Tour de France 2023 stage 17: profiles, climbs

Click on the images to zoom