{"id":64910,"date":"2025-08-13T11:13:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T11:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/64910\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T11:13:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T11:13:07","slug":"the-amateur-that-won-italian-champs-is-pro-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/64910\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘amateur’ that won Italian champs is pro (again)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in June, Filippo Conca took a huge win at the national championships in Italy, beating all sorts of pro riders. He was riding for Swatt Club\u2014a group of riders, several of whom are former professionals or Continental riders. It was founded in 2017 as \u2018Solowattaggio\u2019 and grew from a grassroots blog into a respected Italian cycling collective. The name \u2018Swatt\u2019 reflects the club\u2019s<\/a> ethos of self-reliance and passion for a sponsor-free approach to the sport. (They wear a plain white or blue jersey and bibs.) The team also recently raced at the Tour de Beauce<\/a>, with Mattia Gaffuri taking second overall.<\/p>\n

The \u2018return\u2019 of Conca<\/p>\n

But Conca is hardly some random amateur who fooled the big boys. Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates \u2013 XRG) took second that day, with Thomas Pesenti (Soudal Quick-Step) taking third. The 26-year-old rider raced for Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team the past few years\u2014and before that, WorldTour squad Lotto-Soudal. Although he has a smattering of decent results from when he was a pro, this one, riding as an amateur, is his biggest. So it\u2019s no wonder that teams were keen to get him back in the major leagues.<\/p>\n

On Monday, confirming many rumours online, Team Jayco AlUla announced he was on the squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeam Jayco AlUla is pleased to welcome newly crowned Italian Road Race champion Filippo Conca to the team roster with immediate effect, having signed a new contract through 2027,\u201d a statement<\/a> read. \u201cThe 26-year-old, who currently rides for Swatt Club, will pull on a new Team Jayco AlUla race jersey later this week as he is set to make his debut for the Australian outfit at the upcoming one-day race Franco Belg on 15th of August.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dream of riding Giro in the Tricolore<\/p>\n

Filippo Conca was pleased to be back with the pros.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really happy to join Team Jayco AlUla. I chose this team because I\u2019m confident that I\u2019ll find the ideal environment to work hard. Before making my decision, I consulted my colleagues and the staff, and they all told me that at Jayco AlUla, I would find a family that can support me personally and on a sporting level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Although he\u2019s raced the Vuelta, he\u2019s never done his home Grand Tour, which is definitely on his radar.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dream is to race in the Giro d\u2019Italia. And to do so wearing the Italian national jersey. I think it\u2019s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I want to thank Team Jayco AlUla for the trust they\u2019ve placed in me; I\u2019m sure it will be repaid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Italian has a nice fresh new kit\u2014so it will be easy to spot him in the peloton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in June, Filippo Conca took a huge win at the national championships in Italy, beating all sorts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,51864,51865,85,51866],"class_list":["post-64910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-filippo-conca","tag-italian-championships","tag-sports","tag-team-jayco-alula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}