Bahrain Victorious' performance manager Rod Ellingworth believes Antonio Tiberi can put his world-class win on the UAE Tour's hardest stage partly down to "turning a corner in his life," with the Italian potentially just three stages away from confirming overall victory.
Now 24, the once top prospect is thriving at full potential at the start of his fourth season at Bahrain, with his victory atop the vicious Jebel Mobrah his first win at WorldTour-level, and a confirmation of his solid winter build-up.
"Obviously we're happy for a couple of reasons. One is just that he's got himself there, he's really worked hard the winter, and you can see he's matured as an athlete," Ellingworth told Cyclingnews ahead of stage 4 in Fujairah.
"I think everybody knows that we talk a lot about potential, but then there's that moment where you've got to actually deliver and actually do the business. And I think he's proved it there; that was a world-class win. And the second thing is that it was our first win of the season."
Even against the likes of Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who were billed as the favourites for the day, it was Tiberi who shone brightest on the brutal slopes.
He's set to make his Tour de France debut this season, and having not yet been to an altitude camp this year, Ellingworth and everyone at Bahrain have a lot to be excited about. Tiberi may have shocked some people with his performance on Wednesday, but not his team.
"We haven't changed too much. He did do an altitude camp last year, and he's still been on camps, but not yet at altitude," he said.
"We've got the plans for stuff, but he's just sort of turned a bit of a corner, I think, in his life, and he's working well with the coach and the group who's around him. He's in really good shape, so we didn't have any doubt about his condition coming into the race.
"It was not a surprise internally. I think you can always name maybe five riders who you know are guaranteed, then there's another 10 riders who have shown promise in the past or got potential and everything else – that's where Antonio has sat for the last year or two, but I think he's turned that corner a little bit now."
Having worked with GrandTour winners such as Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal down the years, Ellingworth knows the qualities it takes to be a top GC rider, and he sees them present in Tiberi, outside of the purely physical requirements.
"He's got the physical attributes, and from a maturity point of view, I think that's where he's starting to now come into his own," said Ellingworth.
"And he's got character, there's something about him, that X Factor sort of new thing, and they need that. But you see more and more of that, though, these days, and that's why it's getting harder to get these big results, but he's progressed really well."
The Brit isn't getting too carried away, though, even after Tiberi put a big distance between himself and Evenepoel on stage 3, and held off a late charge from Del Toro. After all, he's still got the tough stage six final to Jebel Hafeet to tackle before he's crowned UAE Tour champion, and those behind won't go down without a big fight.
"A wins, a win, it doesn't matter who's behind you. I believe, it doesn't matter whether it's World Tour level or one of the lower level races that we do, bloody hell, to win them is really tough," he said.
"There are some brilliant quality bike riders out there, you know. And on Remco, was that a true Remco we saw yesterday? No, it wasn't; something happened there to him, whatever that was. And Del Toro, we weren't expecting that from him, but it's just bike racing, isn't it?
"These guys, they're not robots, they have [off] days, and you look at Remco and his quality, and how he's ridden the last few races, it's fantastic. But we know Antonio is good, and on the right day, you can win. So he proved that yesterday."
