Moser mixes past and present at Worlds
Moremo Moser could be Italy’s best hope for the world title
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Liquigas neo-pro lines up in Italian team
Hailing from a nation whose cycling culture is laden with nostalgia, it was perhaps inevitable that Moreno Moser would be the centre of much attention at the Italian team’s final press conference ahead of the world championships road race in Valkenburg.
The Liquigas-Cannondale neo-professional is the nephew of the former world champion Francesco Moser and is blessed with an acceleration that the Italian press has compared repeatedly to the famous sparata that carried his uncle’s fierce rival Giuseppe Saronni, to the rainbow jersey in Goodwood in 1982.
Yet for all that history weighs upon Moser, the prominence of his position in this Italian team is due in part to his federation’s desire to distance itself from the ghosts the recent past. Riders who have been suspended for doping or implicated in doping investigations have been barred from selection and, consequently Paolo Bettini’s team has a largely youthful air.
While Vincenzo Nibali is the natural leader of the Italian team, Moser is set to be handed a significant degree of freedom alongside Diego Ulissi. Still only 21 years of age, however, Moser admitted that he is unsure if he has the endurance necessary to last the course over 267km.
“That’s potentially a problem and it’s the reason that I’m not putting too much pressure on myself,” Moser told Cyclingnews in Maastricht on Thursday.
“I’ve only done one race that long before, the Italian championships (where he finished third). I felt really good there but obviously the level is different here so we’ll see.”
As for his role on Sunday, Moser said that nothing would be set in stone before the team sits down for its final tactical meeting on the eve of the race. In public, Bettini has called on his younger riders to enjoy the occasion by playing an active part in the racing, and Moser is simply determined to bank experience for the future.
“I could have a bit of freedom, but I don’t know yet,” Moser said. “I’ve never ridden the Worlds and right now I can’t say I know how to interpret the race. Whatever I do should
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