Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) got his Giro d'Italia off to a perfect start as he finished safely in the bunch on today's opening stage of the Giro d'Italia. With the Italian grand tour marked out as one of the team's major objectives of the year the Kazakh squad was happy to finally get off the ground.

The Astana team had little to gain in today's opening Giro d'Italia stage in Naples as the Kazakh team has focused all their resources on Vincenzo Nibali's attempt to win the race overall. Hence, it was a case of mission accomplished for the Kazakhs as their Italian captain managed to avoid the day's many crashes and finish safely in the bunch.

With Nibali being the team's main rider and the Italian focusing firmly on the Giro this year, the Italian grand tour is probably the single most important event for the squad and so they have prepared meticulously to be ready for the big battles in the month of may. Hence, general manager Alexander Vinokourov was happy to finally finish the preparation phase and move into the actual race.

"The stage today was a great opening ceremony for the Giro d'Italia, but the real work lays ahead, and we are happy to finally begin the race and get started after so many months of anticipation and preparation," he said. "We have brought a very strong team here for this race, and the guys are calm and ready to go. Vincenzo is very relaxed in spite of all the attention and excitement around him, and this in turn keeps the rest of the squad calm."

The former professional rider also used the opportunity to stress that the team hopes to put their home country into the spotlight as the capital will host a major event in a couple of years.

"The mechanics and soigneurs are all very well organized and prepared, and our entire organization is focused on supporting Vincenzo and on providing the world with a window into Kazakhstan and the capital city Astana as it prepares for the World Expo in 2017."

Nibali will face his first crucial test in tomorrow's team time trial where he hopes to limit his losses to main rival Bradley Wiggins' Sky team.

Starting at 15.30 you can follow the stage in its entirety on CyclingQuotes.com/live.