After years of drought, Italy finally seems to have found a talent capable of making the tifosi dream again. We already had a hunch, but today, in the U23 road race at the World Championships in Rwanda, Lorenzo Mark Finn confirmed it in the clearest way possible. Twelve months ago he was crowned junior world champion, and now he’s done it again among the U23s. Before him, only Matej Mohorič had managed the feat of winning both titles back-to-back, in 2012–2013.

Finn is in his very first year in the U23 category. He already showed flashes at the Giro Next Gen, finishing 6th overall but riding like a veteran. Today, he handled every key moment of the race with poise, proving himself the strongest. He attacked with Swiss rider Jan Huber, who went on to take silver, and then dropped him on the final lap. Roared on by thousands of Rwandan fans, Finn delivered a rainbow jersey and gold medal to Italy, which, at U23 level, hadn’t been missing for too long anyway, thanks to Filippo Baroncini’s win in 2021 and Samuele Battistella’s in 2019.

At the finish, Finn called loudly for the crowd, flashed two fingers to signal the double, and then mimed firing an arrow. “It’s just like last year, simply incredible. The crowd here… in the last 500 meters my ears were hurting from the noise of so many fans, people from all different nations cheering for me,” an ecstatic Finn said. “The people here in Kigali are amazing. It’s been a wonderful week – not only because of the result, but above all an experience I’ll carry with me forever. At first we wanted to see what Belgium would do. They kept the race fairly controlled in the first half, so we tried to save energy, and then chaos exploded: attacks everywhere. Luckily the legs were good. I thought I was on the limit, but I asked my teammates and they were all cooked too. The second part of the race was brutal, with the altitude and the heat… but the team was perfect, the staff too, giving us ice and water, which was crucial today. I knew that in a sprint I’d have very little chance, so I had to go clear. The Swiss rider was really strong. The celebration came to me in the moment. In training, with my teammate Alessandro [Borgo], we had agreed that if one of us won, he’d have to do it.”

Barring any changes of plan, Finn will stay with the Red Bull–Bora-hansgrohe development squad through 2026, which means he’ll have plenty of chances to show off his sparkling rainbow jersey to the world. Maybe even at the Giro Next Gen…