Can 2024 Tour of Flanders revelation surprise again? ‘When the champions are there, the race will be on their shoulders’

Mozzato had enjoyed some strong years at Arkéa-B&B Hotels. Riding for the French team, the Arzignano native took his first professional victory in August 2023, when he proved fastest in a stage of the Tour du Limousin. Later that same year, he also added Binche-Chimay-Binche to his palmarès.

He carried that good form into 2024, when Mozzato rode an extensive spring campaign. He won the Bredene Koksijde Classic, but his most impressive result was still to come after that. In the Tour of Flanders, the Italian emerged as the race’s big surprise by sprinting to second place behind Van der Poel. The classics world had truly been introduced to Luca Mozzato.

The results dipped somewhat in 2025, however, and that may also have played a part in his decision to look elsewhere. He was given an opportunity at Tudor, and after the first few months it already appeared to be an excellent move. “I feel very good within the team. I immediately felt welcome from all the riders and the entire staff. So far, it has definitely been a very good choice,” he told us recently.

At the Swiss team, the focus is once again firmly on the spring. “I really worked for this period,” Mozzato said. With a second place in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and then seventh in Bredene, he had already gone close. “So far I’ve already had some pretty good results,” he said.

“Nothing really crazy good yet, but we have started on the right foot. We hope to continue that until the end of the spring,” he said before the start of the Tour of Bruges. In that Belgian classic he finished fifth, after which he added another strong seventh place in In Flanders Fields.

Those good results are precisely the approach with which Mozzato started his spring campaign. “Of course, we do our best every day and we always want the best result. So it is not about simply starting and getting the bike to the finish. We try to race near the front and to be part of the race,” he said of his team, which has had to deal with the absence of classics leader Stefan Küng.

That naturally leaves the question: what is still possible in a race such as the Tour of Flanders, where major names like Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogačar and Wout van Aert will be on the start line? “It is clear to everyone that we are not the favourites. When the champions are there, the race will be on their shoulders. We have to look for openings, and if an opportunity presents itself, then we have to be ready to take it.”