Matteo Fabbro, a climber for EOLO KOMETA
Matteo Fabbro is EOLO KOMETA’s latest coup for the 2024 season. World Tour experience (in his six years as a pro he raced first at Katusha and then at Bora Hansgrohe), an undisputed talent that places him among the most interesting profiles in Italian cycling, and a great desire for revenge after a complicated year.
Fabbro is a climber produced by the hothouse of talent that is Cycling Team Friuli with which he raced among the Under 23s, a category in which he won in 2015 the Coppa Guinigi and thirteenth place at the Tour de l’Avenir. In 2017 he won third place at the Giro del Belvedere and victory in the prologue time trial of the Giro della Valle d’Aosta, as well as two successes in the Coppa Città di San Daniele and the Bologna-San Luca Cronoscalata. These results earned him a call from Katusha, with which he switched to the pro ranks.
2018 sees him eighth overall at the Tour of Turkey, fifth at the Italian championships and the Trofeo Matteotti, as well as an eighth-place finish in stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana. In 2020 Fabbro switched to Bora and took a third place in the seventh stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico, achieved with 400 meters to go after a solo attack that began 25 km from the finish. Also in 2020, he finishes 23rd in the general classification of his first Giro d’Italia. 2021 saw him star at the Tirreno-Adriatico, with seventh place in stage 4 and 10th in stage 5, which allowed him to finish fifth in the general classification. At the Giro d’Italia he finishes 32nd overall.
“Ivan Basso,” says Matteo, “made me a ruthless court, he courted me for a long time and this was very important for me: I felt wanted, and marrying this project became easier. I’m coming to a team I’ve always admired, I know Davide and Mattia Bais well but also all the other Italians, I think it will be easy and immediate to integrate and be comfortable right away.” But what kind of rider is he, Matteo Fabbro? “I am a climber, my light physique gets along well with climbing and as soon as the going gets tough I am happy. I’ve learned to defend myself well in time trials, too, though.” A season to revive himself, he was quoted as saying, “Let’s say that since I was hit by Covid I had a series of physical problems that limited me a lot, now I have left this period behind and I really want to get off to a great start. I dream of once again making rankings in a grand tour, I am really very motivated: the Giro d’Italia is something unique, something special, I really want to ride it.”
Matteo, like so many of his colleagues, started racing as a child thanks to his mom and dad: “I come from a family of sportsmen and cycling fans, but it was my grandparents who took me to my first races because my parents didn’t want to. I don’t know why, but they didn’t want me to be a cyclist and they tried to get me to try every sport they could, hoping I would get into something else. Instead, I had cycling in my blood: and here I am.” And what is Matteo Fabbro like when he gets off the bike? “A simple person. I am so far away from home that when I am there I like to enjoy family, friends, without stress. It’s also nice, once in a while, to be able to afford to do nothing for a few hours.”
Stefano Zanatta: “Fabbro is a very important addition to the team, is a rider who has always raced on World Tour teams, and this is undoubtedly a guarantee of results. With us he will have the opportunity to put himself in the game to be a protagonist, the choice to come with us will allow him to put himself in the game and find results: we will have to be good at putting him in the best conditions to express all his qualities.”
