'One of the hardest years of my career' - Ciccone accepts tight call in Euros photo finish

Ciccone’s disappointment was palpable when word filtered through that the race jury had awarded the title to Evenepoel, but he had no complaints about the decision after seeing the photo finish imagery for himself.

“I saw the first one and it was not really clear, and then I saw the second one and it was clear,” Ciccone told CyclingPro.net. “I feel really, really disappointed, but first I want to say congrats to Remco, it was a super strong ride.”

Ciccone and Evenepoel had first gone clear on the penultimate ascent of Možjanca with 36km to go, but the move petered out when the Belgian crashed at the start of the descent. When Evenepoel went again soon afterwards, Ciccone was the only rider to follow, and they would go all the way to the finish. 

With his Italian teammate Christian Scaroni chasing alone in third on the final lap, Ciccone elected to stop collaborating in the break. Evenepoel couldn’t hide his frustration, remonstrating with Ciccone and the Italian team car. 

“I was lucky with the situation in the race with Scaroni alone behind us, so I also played on the situation to stay on the wheel,” Ciccone said. “I understand that for [Evenepoel], it was not a nice situation in the front, but this is the race situation. I want to say another time congrats to him for the super performance.”

Ciccone came through for a perfunctory turn as the finish line drew near, but Evenepoel came past soon afterwards, sensing that the Italian had been eager to enter the final corner in front.

“In the last few kilometres, I was just thinking about this corner, I was thinking to take it in the first position,” said Ciccone.

“But Evenepoel understand my plan and he make the acceleration just before. But then I also understand that he was taking the wrong line, so I went full to the left to have a better line. 

“My plan was just to go full after the corner. For one moment, I was really believing it, but yeah, this is the race…”

Ciccone’s disappointment at losing out on the European title by such a fine margin was exacerbated by his string of near misses across the season. Although he enjoyed a spell in the pink jersey at the Giro d’Italia, the 31-year-old hasn’t won a race in 2026, and the European Championships marked his ninth podium finish of the year.

“I think it’s one of the hardest years of my career,” Ciccone said. “I don’t know how many times I finished second or on the podium – eight or nine, I don’t know how many times…”

Ciccone, who has been linked with a move from Lidl-Trek to Pinarello-Q36.5 for2027 will race twice more this season, at Tre Valli Varesine on Tuesday and Il Lombardia next Saturday.

“For the last two races, I just want to race without pressure and, let’s see, just enjoy the bike,” he said.