CYCLING – Team Bahrain Victorious begin today their campaign in the three-week Giro d’Italia cycling race.
The 107th edition of the Grand Tour event sets off from just outside the Italian city of Turin and travels 3,400 kilometres over 21 stages, before finishing outside Rome’s famous Colosseum on May 26.
The route is heavily backloaded, with the five toughest stages coming in the last seven days. The race course this year is shorter than previous editions and with less climbing overall, but with two time trials and over 44,650 metres of ascending to be tackled.
Team Bahrain Victorious feature an eight-rider squad in the event. They took part in the pre-race teams presentation held Thursday night.
The squad will be led by Italian Antonio Tiberi, who is making his Giro debut in his home country. The 22-year-old had just won the youth classification at the Tour of the Alps, where he finished in the top 10 on every stage. Tiberi also produced some stunning performances in time trials over recent months.
“This is my first Giro, so as an Italian cyclist I’m in dreamworld really!” he said. “It’s been an ambition for me since I started riding a bike, so I’m really emotional to be with the fans – on the roadside and also those watching on TV.”
Alongside the youngster will be experienced compatriot Damiano Caruso, who will be the team’s road captain. Caruso is a former stage winner and is making his seventh appearance in the Giro d’Italia.
Others set to compete are Phil Bauhaus and Jasha Sutterlin of Germany, Austrian Rainer Kepplinger, Norwegian Torstein Træn, and Italians Andrea Pasqualon and Edoardo Zambanini.
The team’s Lead Sports Director in Italy is Gorazd Štangelj, who believes the racing will be full gas from the beginning, commented: “It starts hard from day 1. And day 2. Then S3 is a clear sprint. After that everything is very open.
“You can lose precious time early on, so we need to be in the right place and invest in the GC (general classification) from Saturday, while also making sure we can be there for Phil. The second week, while not in any way easy, is more straightforward, but week 3 is extremely difficult.”
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