The season that Walter Calzoni started last February 4th at the Etoile de Besseges is his fourth year as a professional, and everyone, considering the results obtained and in particular the difficulties faced recently, hopes it can be the best since he moved up to the big leagues in 2023.

So far, in fact, the season in which the Brescia-born rider born in 2001 showed his best form was precisely the first one: in that season the product of Gallina Ecotek Lucchini Colosio not only achieved his first (and so far only) top-ten finishes of his career—thirteen in total—but came close on more than one occasion to raising his arms in victory, finishing second in two stages (and the overall classification) of the Tour du Rwanda.

From that moment on, Calzoni, today as then a rider for Q36.5, has struggled considerably to make his mark, staying well away from the top positions in race results and collecting numerous "DNF" (14 in 2025), a situation that prompted us to approach him to better understand what happened to him and, in particular, with what mindset he has now approached his fourth season as a professional.

"I had some physical issues, but now I can say I'm doing well. I hope to be able to achieve those top-ten finishes again, but in general, the goal is to return to being competitive like in my first year" the Lombard rider told us at the Trofeo Laigueglia, his first Italian appointment in an early season schedule that will see him competing several times on home soil.

"I'll do Milano-Torino, Coppi and Bartali and then with the team we'll see which other races to participate in" Calzoni revealed to us, who in the meantime, over these four years, has been able to witness from within the growth of both the structure and the ambitions of Q36.5, now co-branded with Pinarello. In this regard, an important boost to the Swiss team came with the signing of Tom Pidcock, a personality that has undoubtedly elevated the reputation, attention, and number of victories of the Swiss squad.

"Certainly he's made a big leap in quality for the team and now, even though we're not nominally a World Tour team, thanks to him we can consider ourselves almost as such" Calzoni said in this regard before explaining to us what kind of individual he believes the British champion to be.

"He's a bit reserved but he's a good guy and when we're together he always tries to be part of the group. This season we certainly won't race together in the first part, while for the rest we'll see" the 2001-born rider told us, determined, also through the advice dispensed by the versatile champion from Leeds, to turn around his trajectory as a rider by picking up the thread that was broken three seasons ago.