The Giro di Sardegna 2026, the first to be held in fifteen years, undoubtedly had Filippo Zana and Davide Donati as its most representative men. The former, who had been without a victory for over two and a half years, managed to finally break through in Sardinia by winning a stage (the queen stage with finish in Nuoro) and the blue jersey of the general classification, while the latter, at his fifth appearance this year with the Red Bull BORA hansgrohe Rookies jersey, pulled off a splendid double between Tortolì and Olbia, crowning it all with first place in the points classification.

It was inevitable for them, once they crossed the finish line of the fifth and final stage, to express their joy for a (short) week of racing that certainly gives both of them confirmation of their form and morale to face the upcoming appointments with even more conviction.

"It was nice to come here and try to win, we had an excellent week of racing and now we're ready for the next races" Zana said before taking the podium for the awards ceremony.

"I'm super happy for what is my new team this year, it's always nice to win right away with the new colors. Last year was a difficult season because of some problems I had, this year we've worked hard to have a good season and the feelings are good from the start. I hope to continue like this and we'll see how things go in the next races" continued the 2022 Italian road champion.

"Next week I'll race the Strade Bianche and we'll try to get a good result, then later on the goal is definitely to go to the Giro and try to win a stage while also helping Landa for the general classification".

There is no Giro d'Italia (at least not the professional one) and not even the gravel race in the Siena area on Donati's schedule, capable of celebrating twice in four days not only leaving behind people with multiple professional victories but also overcoming some technical setbacks that happened to him at crucial moments.

"Today I launched my sprint starting behind the Team Ukyo men, again my chain jumped a bit in the last 50 meters but I managed to make it anyway" revealed the young rider from Brescia, explaining what happened to him in the final meters of today's stage.

"At the start, we were the favorites and we had the motivation to repeat what we did the other day: in the end we did it and it went even better than two days ago because the leadout work from the team was fantastic, so I can only be super proud. We showed that we were really good at managing operations and I have to thank everyone because without them I wouldn't have made it" said a satisfied Donati who still needs to figure out whether the path to take, with a view to future development, is really that of a sprinter.

"I don't know if in the future I'll be a sprinter: what I'll do is focus on myself day after day, year after year and then we'll see how I evolve" concluded confidently the winner of the 2024 Gran Premio Liberazione, increasingly heading towards a bright future.