For Giacomo Villa, a brand new adventure with an Italian-Mexican flavor is about to begin. From next year, he will wear the colors of Petrolike and try to restart after an extremely complicated season. The twenty-three-year-old from Monticello Brianza is one of the "victims" of the Wagner Bazin disaster, the Franco-Belgian team with a thousand projects that left staff and riders stranded, forcing them to manage somehow. Despite an excellent 2024, 2025 turned into an endless tunnel made even more complicated by numerous physical problems that never allowed him to perform as he wanted.

Giacomo's difficulties actually began even before the official start of the season; exactly a year ago, at the end of the team's training camp in Spain, he had to deal with pneumonia that kept him away from the bike until December 31st. Half-prepared, not in top form, a debut with good results, but the cursed season was just beginning. "In the first races I achieved some top 10 positions, but I wasn't feeling great. Then in April, in the last race in France before heading north, I crashed and it was a disaster. We had already transferred to Belgium and nothing seemed broken, but I remained in the hotel, immobilized by pain, unable to get on the bike. When I returned to Italy, they discovered I had torn two shoulder ligaments. Fortunately, I didn't need surgery, but I was forced to stop again. I returned for the Italian championships, but then we had no more races, there was the tour, races were scarce, and the team was a mess," Giacomo explains to tuttobiciweb. By his own account, he ended up racing for only about forty days and missed his favorite northern classics block. His form was slow to arrive, and even when it did, he found himself starting races of lower level with a team no longer interested in going the distance.

If conflicting news about the team reached us journalists and insiders from the outside, things weren't any better internally. There was a constant exchange of blame and mutual accusations between the French and Belgian factions, with no real information available, and the riders paid the price. "Every day we received conflicting news depending on whether we were with the French or Belgian faction. They were passing blame, and even the staff had resigned. We were absolutely no longer motivated. The sports directors asked us to ride as a group, but everyone had started thinking about their own interests and saving themselves. Some were already sure of finding a team and stopped collaborating, others had no motivation - the situation only got worse," continues Giacomo, emphasizing that not only was group motivation practically non-existent, but the level of races they participated in had also significantly dropped. The impression was that just to accumulate points and gather something, management opted for lower-tier races, hoping to snatch even a minimal victory.

When the official closure news arrived, some had somehow sorted themselves out, some decided to quit, and others like Giacomo saw a continental team extending a hand. It's undeniable that being in a professional team and going back is not easy at all, but after much hesitation, he chose to face this new challenge while keeping his plan B. The Monticello native is close to graduating in sports sciences and already collaborates with the young cyclists of Arcore. "I admit that initially I saw everything as a personal defeat. The team's closure was a hard blow, but then I tried to put things into perspective. I absolutely had to try to restart, and no matter how things went, I would have my plan B. When I received the race calendar, my motivation returned because I saw there would be some high-level races where I can perform well, and I can't wait to start racing again. The team is half Mexican, but the team manager is Italian. They have a concrete and ambitious project, they know what they're doing. We'll start at the end of January with Spanish races and then return to Italy with the Trofeo Laigueglia. This season I'll have to give up my beloved northern races, but I'll have many more opportunities to challenge myself and try to relaunch," Giacomo tells us. Meanwhile, preparation for 2026 has already begun, and he can't wait to start. There will be plenty of Italy in his calendar, and certainly no lack of desire to claim his revenge.