Bardiani have entered the Giro d'Italia with their sight mostly set on stage wins. Nonetheless, it was important to get their race off to a solid start and the team did much better than expected by taking 14th in the opening team time trial.

Made of up of young Italian riders, Bardiani has never been one of the team time trial powerhouses and so they faced a difficult test in yesterday's opening stage of the Giro d'Italia. Putting little emphasis on the overall standings, the result was not overly important but for the youngsters it was important to start the race on the right footing.

And that's exactly what they did. Led across the line by team captain Stefano Pirazzi, they stopped the clock in a time that was good enough for 14th. The result is one of their best ever in a team time trial and even though they had the advantage of riding the stage on dry roads, the perfomance served as a great morale boost for them.

”That's good," Pirazzi said. "I can say that we started the race on the right footing. From the first km we set a fast pace. We said in the morning meeting that we should try to stay close together. That's what we did and we got a great result. We lost just about one minute to Orica but the other teams in front of us are within a few seconds. That means we made a strong performance."

”For us the team time trial is not a one of our strengths and this result is of course positive," Enrico Barbin said. "We gave all on the route and we set a good time. In the second part we set a good pace, and we took the final corners in a good way. This result is an important boost for our morale."

”I’m satisfied with my team," sports director Roberto Reverberi said. "Before the start we hoped to finish 1.40 behind the best squad but we did better. The guys deserved this result, especially because they were up against the strongest in the world that came here with a squad composed especially for this day."