Matthew Riccitello answers my phone call from altitude. He’s been in Tenerife for one day, and there are two weeks of serious work lying ahead of him. Days spent on the volcano with a group of teammates: this is what it takes to make it to cycling’s top table. The young American rider is determined to get there, and he has been for some time now. In fact, a drive for success runs in the Riccitello blood, with Matthew's father Jimmy formerly one of the world's top professional triathletes. His son emulating the same success in professional bike racing feels, in some ways, like destiny.
“Growing up, I was always around sport and the Tour de France was always on TV in the summer. I did a bunch of sports when I was younger: basketball, running, swimming. I started cycling when I was 13 or 14. Straight away, I liked it more than anything else. I progressed fast,” Riccitello says. “I was good at most endurance sports, but with cycling I liked that I could be outside for longer and I could see a lot more than running or swimming in a pool just staring at that black line at the bottom of the pool.”
The young American remembers his formative years being made up of training rides in Tucson, Arizona, a place he describes as his “favourite place to ride.” Sunny weather, quiet roads and a bustling cycling community have fostered the talent of numerous professional bike riders and triathletes from the area.
“My dad didn’t push me to start cycling at all. It's probably the last of the three sports that he wanted me to do, because it has the most risk. But definitely helped having him to ride with and he was around a lot of cyclists,” Riccitello explains. “It made it easy to learn the ins and outs of bikes, what to pack and expect when going to races.”
Growing up surrounded by elite sportspeople has helped Riccitello perform well from a young age. Victories at a national level in the United States as a teenager was a sign of his talent, but he is keen to stress that keeping grounded and understanding the challenges of turning professional were also imperative to his development. As much as his father taught him about competing at the highest level, he also taught his son about the importance of patience.
“I knew I could make it pro but I was always aware that there was a chance it wouldn’t happen, so I tried to keep a big focus in school and other things. Nowadays, younger riders see others doing well right away and that puts pressure on them. I don’t know how healthy that is. A lot of the juniors I rode with went to online high school but I stayed in normal school which forced me to train after classes which was tough, but it made it better when I finally got to train full-time as my job. I was probably only doing 12-hour weeks as a junior, which meant when I turned pro I had more room to grow.”
Riccitello credits the American junior team he rode for LUX Cycling – alongside the likes of current professional riders such as Lidl-Trek’s Quinn Simmons – for ensuring that racing was kept enjoyable for him at a young age: “They were good at finding a balance between trying to give us instruction and guidance, but also letting us try to figure out a lot on our own and and placed a pretty big emphasis on having fun off the bike.”
Then spending two years as part of Axel Merckx’s under-23 development team, Hagens Berman Axeon, was also a key part of Riccitello’s progression to the WorldTour. While many riders of today’s generation go directly to the professional ranks when they leave the juniors, the Tucson-born rider was keen to stick to his ethos of taking the slow and careful route to the top.
“I really enjoy cycling so if I can extend my career, as opposed to shorten it, that’s good. I also wanted to have a crack at under-23 races like the baby Giro and Tour l’Avenir,” Riccitello says. “If you're a junior and you go straight to a pro team, some juniors find it hard those first years just getting along with their teammates, because they don't know how to interact with them. There are different maturity levels and that can be a bigger thing than the physical side. I think that’s where under-23 teams come in.”
It’s clear as Riccitello shares his perspective on cycling’s development pathway that he has a measured and level-headed approach. This has paid dividends so far when it comes to his results: he won the time trial stage in the 2023 edition of L’Avenir by almost 40 seconds, something that caught the attention of his current team, Israel-Premier Tech. Since then, in just the two years he’s spent with the squad, Riccitello has finished fifth overall in the Tour de Suisse and secured 11th place in the uphill time trial stage at his first Grand Tour, the Giro d'Italia, last season. He has a proven ability to climb with the best of the best.
“I always believed that I had the physical talent to be up there on the climbs but seeing your name on results sheets gives you a bit more of a confidence boost. My results in the Giro and Suisse were confirmation I could be up there with those guys,” Riccitello analyses.
“I didn’t put any pressure on myself to do things this early but I did think it was possible. I still have a lot of areas I can improve as a rider and that is what excites me the most. I’m a late developer physically so while those results are nice, I’m taking things as they come at the moment.”
Riccitello believes that he is in the right place to learn with Israel-Premier Tech, surrounded by Grand Tour veterans such as Chris Froome, Michael Woods and Simon Clarke. He’s already had the chance to compete in the Giro and the Vuelta in his career so far, both of which have been invaluable experiences – continuing to pick up skills along the way alongside plenty of racing hours are crucial for Riccitello to reach his lofty ambitions in the sport.
“Every day in a stage race, there's a lot of stress and nervousness. I can often spend too much energy getting to the climb, for example, so I can learn to be more economical and how to ride in a place where I’m protected. Also as I keep getting older and developing more, the engine will get bigger and I’ll progress physically each year,” he comments.
Sylvan Adams, Israel-Premier Tech’s team owner, has publicly stated that he backs Riccitello to lead his team in the Grand Tours in years to come. It’s a weight of expectation on the 23-year-old’s shoulders, but Riccitello argues that any pressure he feels comes from within, rather than externally. He has an intrinsic drive to succeed.
“If I hear something like that, it definitely gives me more motivation and excitement versus anything else. It's something I think is definitely, I believe, achievable and it’s what makes me love training so much everyday,” he comments.
Looking ahead to the rest of the 2025 season, Riccitello has ambitions to target the Vuelta again, a race he feels he has unfinished business with following a crash which scuppered his chances there last year. As always though, guided by the likes of his father, he’ll do so with the calm, measured approach which has got him this far. The key to success for Riccitello is a combination of understanding that his journey to the top is long, while also always keeping the belief that he’ll make it there eventually.
“I want to go to the Vuelta and try not to have any bad days. I want to be consistent and be where I need to be and then the outcome will be good,” he states. “Long term, the Grand Tours are what excite me most in the sport and I want to finish on the podium of one in the next couple of years. That’s my goal.”
