For ten years Italian cycling has been looking for a rider capable of bringing it back to where Vincenzo Nibali left it, fighting to win the Giro, Tour, and Vuelta. Lorenzo Mark Finn is not yet a definitive answer, because at nineteen no one can be, but he is the first to make the question credible again. He climbs, is strong in time trials, recovers, and above all dominates stage races; he has everything needed to start dreaming. In twenty-three months the Ligurian has won the Junior World Championship in Zurich, the Under 23 in Kigali, the Giro Next Gen, and the Tour de l’Avenir. Pink and yellow in the same season; before him only Gianbattista Baronchelli in 1973. Finn finished 2’34” ahead of the first chaser, taking the Flaine hill climb and the last stage at Lake Serrù with an attack two kilometers from the finish, doing what the greats of this sport do when they decide to win by dominating. And it is precisely here that the most burdensome comparison arises.
Finn reminds one of Tadej Pogacar in the way he stays on the pedals, in his slender figure, in the naturalness with which he changes pace, and in the instinct to shake off rivals, making necessity a virtue. He does not have a great sprint, so he found the solution: to arrive alone.
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Obviously, the paths of future champions are paved with comparisons and no one knows if he will become Pogacar, but he thinks about racing the same way, not waiting for something to happen, but making that thing happen. Depending on himself. His story had started elsewhere. Only child of two engineers, mother Chiara from Liguria and father Peter English from Sheffield, he grew up in Salto, a hamlet of Avegno above Recco. As a child he played football and tennis. The bike came at twelve, when Osgood-Schlatter disease caused him knee pain and cycling was easier than running. With his father he discovered the effort of Ligurian climbs and in 2019 he joined Bici Camogli. At his first race he forgot the pins to fix the number; he didn’t know how to ride in a group: “That’s why I went on breakaways, to stay safe.” The turning point came in 2023 with the Cps Professional Team. At the Giro della Lunigiana Finn finished second behind Paul Seixas, the peer with whom European cycling already measures its future. The Frenchman has progressed rapidly and this year finished fourth at the Tour de France; Lorenzo chose another path. After graduating in science at Leonardo da Vinci in Genoa he could have immediately joined the first team of Red Bull-Bora, but he stayed among the Under 23: he had “a world champion’s jersey to show” and wanted to wear it for a year.
It’s called planning.
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It is also for this reason that the comparison with Kimi Antonelli works. They are almost the same age, finished high school before fully dedicating themselves to sport, and represent the Italian answer to disciplines that have become increasingly international. Kimi is already leading the Formula 1 World Championship; Finn is now preparing for the clash with the greats. He will do so from 2027 in the WorldTour, but he has already won among professionals the Sibiu Tour and in September will race the World Championship in Montreal among the Elite. France rejoices with Seixas and rightly so. Italy responds with the boy half Genoese and half English who loves Monte Cornua. “Having eyes on me is a real privilege,” he says. Since Nibali, no Italian had offered so early such a credible set of qualities for a great Giro. We don’t know how far Lorenzo Finn will go, but finally, we know that now we have someone to wait for. And maybe not even that long.
