The 18-year-old from Aosta, Italy, will join the WorldTour team in 2026 but will race in our team colors in the coming weeks as he embarks on a soon-to-be-announced cyclocross project.

Mattia is a complete all-rounder, having come through cycling as a mountain biker before taking up cyclocross and, more recently, road racing. This season, Mattia has achieved several impressive wins on the road and is determined to hit the ground running with his first pro team.

“This year has been great. I’m happy with how I’ve raced and some of my wins and results. I came into the season on the back of my world championships win in cyclocross, and I worked a lot for that win. I still don’t have the words to describe how I felt after that victory, but right now I’m looking to the future and joining EF Education-EasyPost,” he told us from his home in Italy.

“I think that EF Education-EasyPost is going to be the perfect team for me. It’s a good team for young riders to join because I think they are very strong when it comes to rider development. I had conversations with Jonathan Vaughters in the spring, and he made a very good impression. I genuinely believe that I’ll learn a lot from the team and become a better rider. In my first year, I want to improve on the bike but also get to know everyone on the team and have some fun. I think that’s really important for young riders, having that chance to enjoy cycling while you learn,” he added.

Mattia is no stranger to learning, having taught himself English by watching YouTube and TikTok videos. A keen cyclist since his early childhood, it was his father who first introduced him to the sport - initially as a recreational pastime, and later as a way to compete.

“My dad raced a few races as an amateur, so I’ve been on the bike since an early age. I started with mountain biking, and then about four or five years ago, I started cyclocross. Then, four years ago, I did my first race, and from 2024 I started to take road racing a lot more seriously. I’m an allrounder and right now one-day races suit me the best. On shorter climbs, I think I’m good but I still have a lot of improvements to make. That’s where the team can help me, when it comes to nutrition, training, and racing,” he said.

Commentators have compared Mattia to Mathieu van der Poel, another rider who made a significant impact on the cyclocross scene as a junior before becoming one of the most successful riders in the world. Mattia is obviously flattered by the comparisons to a multiple-time world champion and spring classics specialist, but he also understands that his personal development remains his main focus for the years to come.

“Growing up, I was a big fan of Mathieu van der Poel. Lots of people say I look like him, but I really don’t think so. On the bike, people also compare me with him, but honestly, if I could be anything like him as a rider I’d be super happy. We’ll have to see in the future. In the short term, I’m just looking forward to meeting my new teammates and wearing the EF Education-EasyPost kit,” he added.

EF Pro Cycling CEO, Jonathan Vaughters, has been monitoring Mattia’s progress for some time, and after meeting the rider and his family earlier this year, the boss was immediately attracted to the Italian’s outlook, determination, and obvious talent on the bike.

“This kid is crazy intelligent. He learned English from YouTube and TikTok, and that impressed me. The second thing that impressed me was that when I met and had dinner with his entire family, I got to know his background. That’s always very important when you’re taking on young riders. So, his dad is a police officer, his mom is a school teacher, and on the cycling side, he didn’t have a power meter until a year ago. He doesn’t have a deep history in cycling; he’s just a kid from the Italian mountains, and his dad’s love of mountain biking got him into the sport. His dad coached him from books, and his dad coached him to win at Worlds, and I can guarantee that no other kid at the Worlds had their dad coaching them as a side hobby before coming away with the rainbow jersey. To me, that tells me there’s a lot of untapped potential still to come,” Vaughters said.

“When it comes to watching Mattia race, the first thing that stood out to me was the way in which he wins races. In cyclocross, his skill is that he can pick one climb, or one moment, and just be massively explosive for two minutes and create a gap, and that gap never comes back. That super explosive power, lasting 45 seconds to two minutes, is something that not many riders possess. It’s natural and really hard to train. You’ve either got it or you don’t, and in modern cycling, that’s how you win races, by creating that separation,” Vaughters added.

Mattia’s road race program will be decided later in the year, after he meets with the coaches, directors, and his teammates at EF Education-EasyPost’s winter training camp. What’s clear is that while Mattia will be part of the men’s WorldTour squad next season, he will also join the EF Education-Aevolo development team for several races throughout the coming season.

“We’re not going to push on him too hard, so he will race on the development team, but he’ll also race as part of the WorldTour squad,” Vaughters said.

“Here and there, we’ll put him into a few WorldTour races, just to start learning. We won’t overcook him, but when we can, and when we think he’s ready, we’ll race him up on the WorldTour team so that he can gain that vital experience. The sooner he understands how races like the Tour of Flanders or Amstel Gold work, the sooner he can start finding success in them.”