Giulio Ciccone expressed disappointment at not delivering a medal for Italy in the elite men's road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal on Sunday.
Representing the squadra azzurra, Ciccone could only manage ninth place after a hard-fought race on the challenging Mount Royal circuits, where Brandon McNulty (USA) rode away with a solo victory to claim the rainbow jersey.
"I feel sorry for the result. I think we deserved more, sincerely," he said.
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The Italian was part of a selection that formed after relentless attacks from Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), and while the front group reshuffled several times in the following laps, Ciccone stayed in the mix for the world title, even when several smaller groups reconnected up front.
McNulty attacked the group and went solo with 32km remaining, and while the gap fluctuated between a minute and 15 seconds, with little collaboration and many tired legs in the chase behind, they couldn't bring him back.
"In the finale, the cards got reshuffled, and we had riders like Van der Poel, Mads Pedersen, and Quinn Simmons, who weren't interested in closing the gap and did not collaborate to close it down," Ciccone said, noting that McNulty's two teammates, Simmons and Matteo Jorgenson, were in the group too but certainly not obliged to help in the chase.
"On the climb, I tried with [Tom] Pidcock, but the energy was done. For a moment, I believed that because we could see McNulty was 20 seconds [ahead]; we had a gap, and with Pidcock we had the interest to go full gas."
Pidcock and Ciccone were brought back, as McNulty powered to his nation's first elite men's rainbow jersey since 1993 and the biggest win of his career.
"I said last week that the World Championships are an open and tactical race. We reshuffled so many times. It was a very difficult race tactically, and you cannot follow everyone," added Ciccone.
"I'm disappointed about the results. It's such a hard race. We were present, and we had a good performance; I just feel sorry for the results."
The World Championships were not all for nought for Italy, with the nation winning the mixed relay, Filippo Ganna taking silver in the elite men's time trial, Nicolas Milesi taking silver in the under-23 men's time trial, Matilde Rossignoli taking the silver medal in the junior women's road race, and Elisa Longo Borghini taking bronze in the elite women's road race.
Ciccone said he would spend some time recovering from the Worlds before deciding whether to compete at the European Road Championships and Il Lombardia in the coming weeks.
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