Matteo Moschetti was feeling good, as I had told you in recent hours and he confirmed with his own legs in the first two sprints of the AlUla Tour where he finished 4th both times. He had also confessed that, once securing Tom Pidcock's green jersey, he would try to improve those placements and, looking at the result on the endless final straight of the fifth stage, Matteo certainly succeeded, closing the sprint (the third he disputed since returning after last July's accident) in front of everyone with an incredibly fast and particularly sweet victory.

Emotions were not lacking, both after the finish line while embracing his teammates and on the podium and in subsequent interviews, and it was inevitable that they would pour out in all their genuineness, given what the 28-year-old Milanese sprinter has experienced in recent months before getting back on the bike, regaining his condition and returning today, after 503 days, to raise his arms at the end of an undoubtedly very stressful day.

"It wasn't an easy day. Right from the start, there was immediate tension, lots of stress due to the wind. The group split twice, but we were always present, Tom was always protected because the goal was to secure the overall classification. Then, once we arrived at the track and it was clear that the general classification was settled, we focused on the sprint. I was a bit afraid because we were really up front and I feared being anticipated, but in the end the speed was too high. UAE did try, but I managed to come back quite well and win," Matteo said to our microphones before delving into the details of this success.

"I knew I was feeling good, but sprints are never easy, and the strongest doesn't always win. After everything that happened in recent months, maybe few believed in me, but it's nice to win a fairly important race against very respectable opponents. The joy of my teammates? It's pleasing because it means that, beyond the rider, I think I'm a good person and my teammates know everything that happened, everything I went through, how much I believed in this comeback. It moves me just thinking about it... it was nice to see them genuinely happy about this result. Who do I dedicate it to? There would be many people to thank. I dedicate it to the people who were close to me in these months and who always supported me despite things not being so simple," continued the Q36.5 rider, a team that, with this week's victories, has already managed to stand out significantly.

"Certainly, this is not an unexpected start of the season because we worked hard and really intensely this winter, but races are races, and the confrontation with the opponent is always something else, so starting the season like this for the team is really important," Moschetti concluded, a sprinter but above all a person for whom it was impossible not to be emotional today in Alula.