Riccitello brings home overall victory in Sibiu Cycling Tour

Matthew Riccitello had no problems sealing the overall victory in the Sibiu Cycling Tour during Sunday’s final individual time trial, securing the first stage race win of his career. Riley Pickrell finished fourth in the stage.

“This feels really good. I’m super happy,” Riccitello said after the podium ceremony. “It’s rare that everything goes according to plan, but in this race, everything pretty much worked out for us. Even though we were down to four riders, the guys who were left were so strong. They made my life so much easier. Everything just went great this week. It was really cool.”

After two tough mountain-top finishes on stages 2 and 3, where Riccitello won the first and finished second in the other, the 23-year-old American held a lead of 1:06 minutes over his nearest rival heading into today’s time trial. As a result, Riccitello could afford to avoid taking any risks and simply focus on getting safely through the 3.3 km course to secure the overall win.

He adds: “I felt pretty confident with the lead I had going into the stage. The course was really technical, so my main concern was avoiding a puncture. I didn’t want to take any risks, so I took it easy in the corners, but I still had to go hard in the other sectors. In the end, it all worked out perfectly.”

Overall, this year’s Sibiu Cycling Tour was highly successful for IPT, with victories in the first two stages by Pickrell and Riccitello, respectively, along with the overall win. In addition, Riccitello also won the KOM classification.

“The whole team worked perfectly all week”, sports director Francesco Frassi explains. “We started this race with the goal of winning a stage with one of our sprinters and the GC with Matthew. In the end, we won two stages and the overall so it has been a really, really nice week here in Sibiu.”