Keeping a cool head in the tumultuous last two kilometres of stage 4 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana gave Matteo Moschetti (Trek-Segafredo) a clear pathway to victory on Saturday as the young Italian sprinter powered to his first win of 2022.
The 25-year-old Italian was arguably not one of the expected favourites for Valenciana’s second sprint finish in three days with his compatriot Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers) and stage 2 winner Fabio Jakobsen (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) out to win but Moschetti took his chance.
After a crash on a sharp right-hand corner with 1.5 kilometres to go disrupted the sprinters charge for the line and saw two of his teammates, Marc Brustenga and Markus Hoelgaard, go down, Moschetti remained perfectly placed behind a small knot of UAE Team Emirates riders and ready to go for the line.
With 200 metres to go and despite his lack of a lead-out after the extra turbulence caused by the crash, Moschetti put in a searing solo acceleration along the barriers.
A few seconds later, the Trek-Segafredo rider hit the line first to claim the sixth victory of his career and his first in a ProSeries-ranked race since his breakthrough victory in the Vuelta a Burgos in 2018.
“There was a crash with 1.5 kilometres to go but I could follow the other guys and then in the last corner I saw a gap on the left side,” Moschetti explained after his win.
“I don’t know what actually happened in the crash, the last few kilometres were pretty chaotic. Everybody was expecting Jakobsen and Viviani, all of those guys, but I knew today could be for me, too. So thanks to the guys for doing such a nice job.”
Moschetti put on a defiant tone when asked if he felt pleased at being able to beat some of the best-known sprinters in the peloton.
“Maybe for some people Trek-Segafredo is not the biggest team in the world. But we wanted to show our potential and we are nothing less than the other guys,” he insisted.
“This victory has a very special value. In my head there was a very strong will to do well, but the feelings of the last days were not the best. Motivation today was stronger than anything. I really looked for this win, because honestly I’m coming from a difficult period. The heavy crash in 2020, the slow recovery and a return in which I struggled to find the best condition to win and express myself at the best. Today I can put all this behind me."
Moschetti dedicated the win to the memory of José Eduardo ‘Pepinho’ Santos, the Trek Segafredo mechanic who died recently.
His goals for 2022, he said, are similar to other years, with the UAE Tour in February and then the Giro d’Italia, where he already has several top ten stage finishes, two of his biggest targets of the season.
Moschetti himself has not ruled out going for two out of two in Sunday’s final flat run to Valencia, but first he said, “I just want to enjoy this win."
