"Speed is the aristocracy of velodromes" wrote the great Rino Negri in Gazzetta dello Sport when Antonio Maspes was winning world titles repeatedly. After years of darkness, Italy is raising its head again and Mattia Predomo is one of Ivan Quaranta's arrows in the track cycling quiver. In Predomo's palmares are 2 World Championships, 7 European titles, 6 Italian Championships. In 2024 and 2025, together with Stefano Minuta and Daniele Napolitano, he was crowned European Team Sprint Champion under 23.

Recently, Predomo finished 2nd in the international speed tournament associated with the Six Days of Pordenone. In the final, the South Tyrolean in the Italian Champion jersey lost two-zero to Russian Nikita Kiriltsev. "When I decide to participate in a race - says Mattia, who will celebrate his 21st birthday on August 13th - I always aim for victory. Kiriltsev was stronger. At this moment he's going extremely fast, and I have to acknowledge that, so no regrets about the Pordenone result". These weeks, Mattia is training intensively at the Montichiari velodrome, carefully monitored by Ivan Quaranta.

"I'm not yet at 200% of my form" - states the South Tyrolean registered with Italian Army and Team Campana Imballaggi Geo & Tex Trentino - "I'm in a period where I'm trying to improve a lot and I hope this commitment will be rewarded later, when it comes to qualifying for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics".

In any case, apart from Kiriltsev, Mattia authoritatively beat everyone in Pordenone. "I think I'm at a good 90% or even 95% of my form". Soon Predomo will participate in international Class 1 or 2 races abroad. "The goal is to perform well at the World Championship in October in Santiago, Chile".

The numbers show that Mattia was already highly rated in fast specialties at international level last year. "From 2024 to 2025 - he notes - I think I've improved quite a bit but not yet as much as I would like, there's still a lot of work I need to do. It will take time".

Then he rewinds his career tape. "I first pedaled on the track as a beginner in 2017. For several seasons I alternated road and track". Mattia is from South Tyrol, where mountains are abundant. Has he ever imagined himself as a climber? "I had a very brief period as a beginner when we thought I could do well on the road and in the mountains - he admits - then with development and age I understood what to base my career on".

The turning point came in 2021: "It's the year when at the Junior World Championship I placed third in speed and understood it was the right path to take". Some track sprinters carve out spaces to race on the road. Even multiple champions have done so. "I would never go back to road activity, the sensations the track gives me are inexplicable: adrenaline, speed, and inner fire. These are sensations the road never gave me".

In Mattia Predomo's beautiful sporting and human growth, Alessandro Coden, former rider, later a skilled sports director, certainly has great merits. The South Tyrolean technician in love with the track was Predomo's mentor.

"Obviously Alessandro Coden was the first to direct me towards speed - Mattia specifies - rather than the road. So he was fundamental in my career and continues to be. Obviously Ivan Quaranta, since joining the Federation and becoming our sprinters' coach, makes us work day by day. We try to achieve important goals together. Logically, for the path I'm following, I must also make an enormous thank you to the Olympic Sports Center of the Army that supports me".

Does Mattia have a sprinter model to imitate?

"For the activity I do, there are 2 models: Harrie Lavreysen and Matthew Richardson. Currently, they are one or two steps above everyone in our environment".