Andrea Raccagni: “I want to improve on the climbs next year”

The 21-year-old neo-pro looked back on his first season in the Soudal Quick-Step jersey and talked about his ambitions for the future.

Andrea Raccagni concluded just a couple of weeks ago, in China, a solid rookie season. The Italian, who turned pro after two years spent with our Devo squad, competed on three different continents from January until October and scored a total of nine top-ten results, including some at World Tour level. Motivated by this, Andrea is already looking forward to 2026, a year where he hopes to discover some new races and fight for a victory.

“My season can be divided in two parts: before and after the National Championships. I got a couple of top ten results in the first months of the year, but I didn’t have the best feeling, whereas after the Nationals and an altitude training camp, I felt better and stronger in some really hard races.

It was nice to start my season with a top ten on the last stage of the Tour Down Under before returning to Europe. There I hit the cobbles and made my Paris-Roubaix debut. I suffered on that day, but despite this, it still was an experience from which I learned a lot. I remember the atmosphere that the fans made, it was crazy out there, and I hope to be back at the start one day.

Then, the summer brought a top fourth-place finish in Poland, which was the first result that came after a performance that really made me happy, especially as I achieved it on a hard course, with almost 3000 meters of climbing. I got the answer I was looking for that day and a confirmation of the fact I was working in the right direction. In Germany and Slovakia I began racking up top-ten results, and in the latter it was incredible to get my first top ten overall finish, which was actually insane, as I concluded just two seconds from the white jersey. It was one of the highlights of the season for me.

I would say that this year was one of transition for me, as it was mainly about learning and improving with the support of an amazing Soudal Quick-Step team.

I see next year as being more or less the same. I want to improve on the climbs, because I feel good there. I already knew I was capable of some nice things in the sprints, but I was happy to see what I could do when the road went up. Next season I would also like to get a victory and discover some new races, like the ones in the Ardennes. I also hope to be at the start of Milano-Sanremo and the Giro, these are two races that every Italian dreams of, and it would make me happy to race them.”

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