After almost two months without pinning a number on his back, Matteo Malucelli is about to experience the racing atmosphere again by taking part in the Tour of Hainan, a short stage race where last year he achieved his first success of the season by winning the opening short stage in Qionghai in a sprint.

Following on from what he did in 2025, the sprinter from Forlì with XDS Astana (winner at the beginning of the year of a stage at the AlUla Tour) has also set his sights this year on the opening race of the professional Chinese calendar, an appointment where, facing off against a battery of sprinters in good form, he will try to make the most of the intense training he recently completed on Mount Etna which, between snow, cold, and substantial training sessions, could soon lead him towards new personal achievements.

Matteo, you arrive here in Asia after spending a good period on Mount Etna: how did it go in Sicily?

"We made this choice at the programming level mainly because in the months of March and April in Europe I suffer from cypress pollen allergy and therefore I'm never performing well. For this reason, we opted to have a fairly strong start to the season with Alula Tour and UAE Tour and then take a break, go to altitude and prepare Hainan there and perhaps a hypothetical Grand Tour, in case there's the possibility to do it. On Mount Etna, the weather wasn't very kind (although it's been a bit like that everywhere in Europe), I had only a slight setback one day due to a virus but, apart from that, all in all I trained well. It's definitely much hotter here, the air is heavier and we'll see if we can be ready to collect something important".

You mentioned the Grand Tours and we know you still haven't competed in one. Could the Tour of Hainan in this perspective help you further showcase yourself and facilitate your selection?

"Although no official announcement has arrived yet, I can say I've prepared myself by doing a type of work aimed at participating in a Grand Tour which, if it happens, could be the Giro d'Italia. If then the condition in this race turns out to be as good as I believe, the odds will certainly increase, but in any case everything I've put in my legs will be useful for the rest of the season anyway".

You're a Kazakh team with interests in Asia and China in particular: in a context like this what kind of internal pressure do you have?

"It's normal that when you race in the sponsor's home the biggest pressure is the one you put on yourself or anyway the environment you're in. In the end, the same thing happens to French teams at the Tour and Italian teams with the Giro. For us therefore it's clear that, since Hainan is the first Pro Series race of the year in China and a race that last season was sponsored by XDS itself, the pressure is higher. We know however that, if we do things well and with the right approach, we should be able to be protagonists and bring home our results, while keeping in mind that winning is always complicated".

All the more so if there's a startlist like this year's with ten professional teams and opponents who therefore should be of slightly higher caliber than in previous years.

"Let's say that when in this type of race the level is a bit higher, often for us it's better, because the race is run at slightly different paces and the control of the race is no longer entirely on our shoulders. It's easier to find allies (or even enemies) along the way who can toughen up the race and, by doing so, help bring out those riders who have better values than others, penalizing instead those who, perhaps, are in the race either by luck or because the race came easy. Inevitably, when the level of opponents rises, the difficulty in winning races also increases, but this is part of the game".

Is there anyone you'll watch with particular attention?

"There are several fast guys at the start: certainly Salby who won stages in Thailand, Barbier who did the same, Rajovic who won here last year... sprinters, in short, don't lack. I hope that in the longer stages, over 200 kilometers, the differences between us can be more marked but let's see if that will be the case or not".

This year you've made some changes in terms of equipment and choices: are the responses you're getting positive and will you carry forward the adjustments you've made from here to the end of the season?

"In the first two races I did, at AlUla and the UAE Tour, I used the new setup that I'm also finding good in training, so I believe that, if things continue to go as they have so far, it could be the definitive one. Then, obviously, we'll try to improve ourselves always in terms of equipment keeping pace with technology and innovations (this year, for example, the frame has some small differences compared to the 2025 one and new Vision components have arrived), but as far as I'm concerned we've made those 2-3 adjustments that really seem to have borne fruit".

Which ones specifically?

"Mainly, to improve ourselves, we started from the cranks and, even before that, from the need to have a larger chainring. For this reason, we shortened the cranks a bit and thus moved to an S frame of a larger size compared to the one I used last year. The three things were therefore one the consequence of the other but all the reasoning started from the need to use a longer gear ratio and push the 56 with ease, which is fundamental today, considering the speeds that are reached, to be competitive in the sprint".

Do you feel you've reached the peak of your career as a professional cyclist or do you have the feeling that you still have a lot to give and improve?

"I can say that I've never trained in my life like I did during this last training camp on Mount Etna. Never in my life. I did ten days with really important volumes and intensities. We'll see if this training camp will make me improve further or won't have any effect: if I perform worse than before, it will mean that I've already found my maximum and I'll have to be good at staying at the level I'm at for as long as possible; on the other hand, if results and sensations improve, it will mean that I still have some margin".

So what's the goal from here to the end of the year?

"We no longer set a number of successes to achieve. Of course, if we made a calendar aimed at getting as many wins as possible, I could realistically indicate ten as the number, but we've reached the point where I believe it's more important to try to improve this score from a qualitative point of view, aiming for something better. The stage won at AlUla against Milan, in this sense, gave me something I was missing: let's see if from here to the end of the year we'll be able to take a further step forward".