Italy has been one of the most successful nations in the history of the elite road races at the UCI Road World Championships, with the women’s team securing six titles since 1957 and the men’s 19 titles since 1927.
Elisa Balsamo is the most recent winner among the elite categories, having won the elite women’s road race in Leuven last year, and she will line up in Wollongong as the defending champion and favourite to win for the second year in a row.
Her victory marked the nation’s first for elite women since its triple wins with Giorgia Bronzini in 2010 and 2011, and Tatiana Guderzo in 2009, and before that, Marta Bastianelli in 2008 and Alessandra Cappellotto in 1997.
Filippo Ganna won back-to-back time trial world titles in 2020 and 2021. Still, the men’s team will be looking to end a 13-year drought in the elite men’s road race event since Alessandro Ballan last won the rainbow jersey for Italy in 2008. Since that victory, Matteo Trentin has come the closest to the title with a silver medal in 2019.
The nation’s 19 men’s road race world titles were on by 16 riders. Alfredo Binda is honoured as having won the inaugural men’s world title in 1927 and followed that win with two more titles in 1930 and 1932. In between Learco Guerra secured the nation the rainbow jersey in 1931.
It would be another 15 years before Fausto Coppi won his first and only world title in 1953. The title then went to Ercole Baldini (1958), Vittorio Adorni (1968), Marino Basso (1972), Felice Gimondi (1973), Francesco Moser (1977), Giuseppe Saronni (1982), Moreno Argentin (1986), Maurizio Fondriest (1988), Gianni Bugno (1991 and 1992), Mario Cipollini (2002), Paolo Bettini (2006 and 2007), and Ballan in 2008.
The Italian Cycling Federation (FCI) is notorious for announcing the squadra azzurra at the last possible moment, however, new national team coach Daniele Bennati recently went big with the men’s team long-list revealed during a Lorenzo Jovanotti concert in Bresso.
Line up
Elite women
- Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo)
- Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo)
- Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ)
- Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ)
- Elena Cecchini (SD Worx)
- Arianna Fidanza (BikeExchange-Jayco)
- Vittoria Guazzini (FDJ-Suez-Futuroscope) – U23
- Soraya Paladin (Canyon-Sram)
- Silvia Persico (Valcar-Travel & Service)
- Silvia Zanardi (Bepink) – U23
Elite men
- Lorenzo Rota (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert)
- Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan)
- Davide Ballerini (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl)
- Andrea Bagioli (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl)
- Alberto…
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