With the Giro d'Italia now in the books, our attention turns to the Giro Women, while the great "pink triptych" will be completed from Sunday to Sunday, from June 14th to 21st, with a Giro Next Gen that this year will excite the roads of Central-Southern Italy. Enthusiasm and focused attention will be largely dedicated to a young rider from Liguria, with half-English heritage, who has chosen to race one more year with the Red Bull Rookies before making the definitive leap to the World Tour squad…

We had left Lorenzo Mark Finn with a broken wrist at the Tour of the Alps and operated on at the Villa Serena clinic in Genoa. We find him these days in Andorra, where he's preparing for his return to the corsa rosa for Under 23s and has found time to speak with the media alongside sports director Tim Meeusen: «The right wrist is practically like new - Finn assures us -. When it happened to me three years ago, it took me much longer because I had a cast on, this time I had surgery right away and in just over a month I recovered almost 100%. It hurts me a bit now and then in daily life, if I bend it in a particular way, but on the bike I have no problems at all. Let's say that, in the misfortune, I was fortunate that this happened during a period when, after the TotA, I'd have been resting anyway to recover and then come to altitude to prepare for the Giro Next Gen. It was more than anything the disappointment of going from competing in a Pro race to finding myself on the ground right after a transfer section and then in the hospital. Apart from this more mental aspect, in practice the injury wasn't such a big "obstacle." After the surgery I was excellently followed at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center in Austria, after which I rested at home and now here I'm preparing for the next appointments».

PREPARATION AND CONDITION «I had structured the season to be at my peak at the Giro Next Gen, so we inserted as many stage races as possible in my calendar, like Sardegna and Coppi&Bartali, where I didn't perform at my best because they were part of the path toward my first major seasonal objective. I then won Recioto and Belvedere and at the Tour of the Alps I was demonstrating that I was on the right track, expressing the values I was producing in training: this is always a good sign. How am I doing now? You don't feel the benefits while you're at altitude but you notice them afterwards. This important block of work is aimed at being in good shape for the Giro, there we'll discover everything».

GIRO NEXT GEN ROUTE «Compared to last year, where every day seemed like there could be a winning breakaway, this time there's a clear distinction between sprinters' and mountain stages. The GC will be decided in the last three stages and the final one will be a time trial, it will be interesting to see how we get there and who will have managed fatigue better during the week. Personally I'm not worried: last year my difficulties at the end were due more than anything to the crash on the Maniva on the third stage, while at the Tour de l'Avenir where I had no incidents I gave my best at the end...»

RACING AS FAVORITES «Certainly someone will race against us, as happened at the Liège U23 where I finished 13th in the sprint, and compared to professional categories it's much more difficult to control the race because there are no radios. On the other hand, this year at the Giro there will be 6 riders per lineup instead of 5, and with a strong squad like ours it will be easier to manage the situation. Having eyes on me, wearing the rainbow jersey, is an authentic privilege. I'm enjoying the best of a cyclist's life, with the enthusiasm of someone who's building their own engine, without yet having the pressures of professionals, and knowing they can have a long career ahead».

THE PROGRAM «After the Giro there will be the Italian championships and another stage race, after which rest, Tour de l'Avenir and Worlds».

NOT JUST CYCLING «For me it was fundamental to finish school well (Leonardo da Vinci scientific high school in Genoa), both my family and I cared about it. In the future I could enroll at university, but now I'm thinking about being a rider. For sure next year I'll move away from home and that will already be an important step, one day I'd like to start a family but now I'm 19 years old and in life everything must be done at the right time».

MEEUSEN SAYS ABOUT HIM «Lorenzo is a polite, mature guy with a very relaxed character, so we're having good success as a team in keeping him safe from pressures along with his excellent family environment. He also has a great sense of humor and fits in with the group magnificently. From a strictly cycling perspective, we've built a long-term path with him where results will be seen over the years: what matters now is his development, it would be an enormous blunder to focus only on numbers and placements. We talked a lot with him this winter, we set up targeted preparation to be at our peak at some key points of the year, he gained a lot of awareness by measuring himself in races with the World Team and managed to react brilliantly to the injury. His growth continues!»