It has not been an enjoyable start to life as a BMC Racing Team rider for Alessandro De Marchi. A fall in the first stage of the Tour of Qatar left him needing three stitches under his chin. Now a nasty virus has given him violent gastroenteritis that forced him to miss the Tour of Oman.

"It gets worse,” he explains to tuttobiciweb.it once he returned home to Italy. “I felt bad on Saturday, when we moved from Qatar to Oman. I got a terrible virus, I was sick a few times. In one day I lost 3 kg and the doctor of our team advised me to go home. The important thing is to recover well for the upcoming races."

His next few events all take place in Italy and he hopes to have returned to his full fitness to shine for his new team in his home country.

"Strade Bianche, then Tirreno-Adriatico and Sanremo. At that point we will decide the rest of the season. The important thing though is that now I'm much better already and the problem has been overcome. As they say in these cases, at least I was sick now, rather than during the important races."