'I was feeling so old': Ciccone praises Seixas as he admits 'small mistake' trying to follow history-maker

The Italian finished 1:05 behind Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), who became the youngest winner in the race’s history at 20 years and 16 days old, with Vuelta a España winner Enric Mas (Movistar) splitting the pair in second. 

Another positive result and performance to build upon his second-place finish at the European Championships in Slovenia last week, where he was denied victory in a photo finish by Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). However, Ciccone admitted that he didn't feel as good as he did one week ago. 

“Yeah, this one was different because, like I said, today I wasn’t really feeling super good,” Ciccone told CyclingProNet. “So I think I understood straight away that I was fighting for, I would say not the victory on Civiglio when I saw Seixas go like this.”

“But I’m really happy and also proud because to finish like this when you’re not having a good day, I think it’s also something good.”

When Seixas made the race-winning difference inside the final 20km on the Civiglio ascent, Ciccone was one of only two riders able to follow the pace of the sensational Frenchman. 

The other rider, Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5), who could become a teammate of Ciccone with the Italian rumoured to be heading to the Swiss ProTeam following his departure from Lidl-Trek, admitted post-race that he went “into the red” while trying to follow Seixas. 

Similarly, Ciccone admitted that he might have been better served by trying to pace himself rather than attempting to follow the acceleration, though he believes that Seixas was simply in a league of his own during a history-making day. 

“Yeah, I was on the limit, and maybe there, like I said, I made a small mistake to try to follow him. Maybe it would have been better to pace a little bit,” he said. 

“But, like I said, I tried to go for something big. Maybe, in the end, it could be also a small mistake. But Seixas was on another level on the climb today, so he really deserved his victory."

"I have no words, because when they say on the podium [Seixas is] 20 years [old], I was feeling so old and I just remember when I was 21 and I won my first stage in the Giro and it was something super big, and now congrats to him."

Ciccone was ultimately the last man standing on Seixas’ wheel after Pidcock was distanced, but the Italian was also unable to sustain the scintillating pace of the Frenchman, and he was joined by Mas at the top of the climb.

After Mas managed to break free from Ciccone on the final San Fermo della Battaglia ascent in the closing kilometres, the Italian dug deep to hold off the chasers for third and capped his time at Lidl-Trek with another major podium finish, just one week after his heartbreak in Slovenia.