Trentin's CCC Team move - 'More opportunities to get better results'

GUILIN, China (VN) — Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) ended his season Tuesday at the Tour of Guangxi with eyes on the off-season. After well-earned rest, he will meet with Greg van Avermaet and the rest of the roster in his new CCC Team.

Trentin ends the 2019 season with a silver medal from the world championships behind Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) and another stage win, his third, from the Tour de France. It was one of his most consistent seasons to date.

“I have to be honest, I didn’t think too much into 2020, yet,” Trentin told VeloNews. “I’m just focused to finish this season today. And then focus on enjoying my off-season before thinking about what do I want to do in the next year.

“Actually, everything [went well in 2019]. I was healthy. The training was good, and the racing was also pretty good. It can be a little bit better. It could be a little bit worse. But at the end, this is a wrap of my 2019.

Earlier this 2019 season, on August 2, the team run by American Jim Ochowicz announced the Trentin deal. At least for the next two years, 2020 and 2021, Trentin will race in CCC’s orange colors.

Trentin, 30 years old, has led Mitchelton-Scott from Milano-Sanremo through Paris-Roubaix in the past two years. He joined the Aussie team after racing with Quick-Step.

CCC will open the doors for him. With van Avermaet, the team will have a second bonafide classics rider so that the captains can play off one another. Then in the grand tours, without a big GC rider, Trentin will have more freedom to hunt down stage victories like the one he took in the Tour de France stage to Gap this year.

Mitchelton-Scott has slowly developed classification riders Adam and Simon Yates, and Esteban Chaves these last years. Simon Yates won the Vuelta a España in 2018. Such are their talents that the team cannot expend much energy on hunting down stage victories unless its GC ambitions are derailed, which was the case in the 2019 Tour.

“I think [with van Avermaet] we’re going be a good duo to play a good role in the classics. Let’s see. It’s all to be discovered,” Trentin added.

“Yeah, of course and then also that follows for the rest of the season, too. So when you have like an extra card to play, it is always an advantage for everyone in the team.”

“Not only will Matteo add strength to our classics team, where he will ride alongside Greg van Avermaet, but his versatility as a rider will make him an asset to the team,” Ochowicz said when the team announced Trentin would join.

“As we saw in the Tour de France, not only can Matteo sprint, but he can also climb and it was his attack on the final climb on stage 17 that led him to the impressive solo stage win.

“We believe his best is yet to come. We were looking to boost our classics team with a rider capable of winning and someone who could work with Greg to give the team multiple cards to play, and Matteo ticks both of those boxes.”

Trentin won a stage and finished second overall in the Tour of Britain behind Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus), both hot favorites for the Worlds. In the Worlds, van der Poel bonked and Trentin kept firing. However, when Dane Mads Peterson opened up for the sprint, Trentin said, “There was nothing I could do.” He took home a silver medal.

The Tour of Guangxi in South China was his last official race for the year. He finished third four times in the sprints.