It is with enthusiasm, desire to learn and great awareness that Elia Viviani is preparing to start his first season as a former rider.
The thirty-six year old from Verona, who retired this year after 16 seasons as a professional which brought him 90 victories on the road and other unrivaled laurels (three world titles in the Elimination and an Olympic gold in the Omnium) on the track, in 2026 will in fact be involved both in the role of sports director of INEOS Grenadiers than in those of team managers of National (track and road), these tasks will both represent two new intriguing challenges for him and which, without a shadow of a doubt, will characterize the former Lotto’s year of stimuli, notions to assimilate and lessons to learn.
Viviani therefore, next season, will launch himself into the discovery of more terrains unknown to him and will do so at the same time with humility but without awe, moving with the idea of trying to leave his mark immediately by exploiting from the beginning the vision, clarity, tactical reading and experience refined in recent years to guide his representatives towards a path of success.
We spoke to him about his expectations, but also about how his days have changed, about the additions made by INEOS and about the spirit within the British team. Monte Carlo on the occasion of the presentation of Tour of Spain 2026an event in which he participated together with his new technical director (as well as former partner) Geraint Thomas going to discover in detail a path which, next August, it is not excluded may also exalt a boy who is progressively, among the English ranks, finding himself more and more like Egan Bernal.
Elia, so what are your thoughts on the next edition of the Iberian stage race?
“It’s a tough Vuelta, as always. There are two stages above 5,000 meters that scare everyone a bit and probably 3 or 4 opportunities for the sprinters. Having said that, overall it is a beautiful Vuelta that begins in Monaco, in a fantastic setting that we know well, and that ends in a different place, not in Madrid, but in Granada. Taking place largely in the south of Spain, it will also be a very hot Vuelta and, therefore, whoever wants to try to win it will have to be able to resist very high temperatures, different from those we encountered this year in the northern part of the country. It is certainly a race that I carry in my heart because winning three stages, including the one in Madrid in the tricolor jersey, was something fantastic for me and then it was the last great stage race that I took part in in my career, so it absolutely has a special value.”.
How and with what spirit does a sprinter face a tough stage race like the Spanish one?
“Undoubtedly, in the preparation phase, you push yourself a little more by working on the climb because you know that, to sprint, you have to be able to pass the mountains. Then, if you are well organized like we were this year and if you have good support, a sprinter can certainly get to the end of the Vuelta by playing his cards from time to time in sprints that are often not crowded. It is therefore a race in which a sprinter can have various opportunities to exploit and which, if adequately supported, can prove to be very beautiful. Personally, I’ve always liked it”.
You found yourself taking part in the presentation of the route together with Geraint Thomas but both of you no longer wearing the role of runner but, respectively, that of technical director and sporting director of Ineos: how will you interact in 2026?
“The thing that doesn’t change is that we will continue, between running and cycling, to play sports together, although clearly a little less professionally than we did until recently. For both of us, the time had come to say enough: I got the confirmation when I asked Geraint, watching the boys line up and start the races, if he missed all that and his answer, like mine, was “no”. Together we will now find ourselves facing what is a new challenge for us. Obviously we both have a lot to learn now being on the other side of the fence and for this reason we have wasted no time throwing ourselves headlong into this new adventure where, continuing to observe and learn day after day, we will try to give our best”.
Instead, remaining on the Vuelta, we know that it is the only Grand Tour that is missing from Egan Bernal’s showcase. Now that you know the route, is there an idea, a common will to return to this race to try to do something good?
“Egan, you know, is one of the references in the team, a guy who won the Tour and an inspiration for many guys. Certainly the serious fall in 2022 put him in the position of having to face everything step by step but, in the meantime, he returned to winning and last year he played, in my opinion, a solid season. At the beginning of 2025 he won the Colombian national championships where, both in the time trial and on the road, it is never easy to impose himself, so he broke his collarbone and had to stop but, subsequently, he raced the Giro d’Italia, finishing in the top ten in the general classification and took part in the Vuelta where he managed to win a stage. This confirms that Egan has found a certain solidity even if, as is normal, he still has some ailments that he needs to work on. Like all professionals and great champions, he has clearly in mind what he wants and in his plans, after having returned to raising his arms to the sky in a great stage race, there is the will to proceed step by step, first targeting success in a week-long race and then possibly thinking about success in a Grand Tour. Next year he will contest one-week races in the first part of the season and then the Giro after which the Vuelta could undoubtedly be considered. We have not yet evaluated his participation because the programs, for now, are drawn up until a certain point in the season but, given the calendar that Egan will follow, we expect him to be able to participate”.
To find out what Viviani told us about all the other topics touched on in the interview conducted in the Principality of Monaco, we invite you to listen to the first January episode of our podcast BlaBlaBike.
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