Despite losing some time to the likes of Nibali and Valverde in the Giro’s opening time trial, Dave Brailsford is confident Mikel Landa can win the Giro d’Italia this year.

“He’s got an ‘X’ factor, that makes you think: ‘this is a big star in the making,’” Brailsford told Cyclingnews at the start of stage two of the Giro d’Italia in Arnhem.

“He did actually better than we expected which was good,” Brailsford said, after Landa finished 67th, 40 seconds down. “It’s no secret, though, that we’re here to play the long game and we were happy in our camp with that start, and now we’re looking forward to getting into the race.”

Brailsford has had around half a year to get to know the Basque rider and says he is a great professional and a really nice guy.

“He’s a super-nice guy, very, very focused and very intelligent in his approach to his sport. He’s aware of the details, he doesn’t take things blindly, he really wants to understand and question and look and all the rest of it, in that sense he’s really good. He’s calm, relaxed, doesn’t get stressed. He’s got a nice mentality, if you like, about how he’s approaching the whole thing, which will serve him well. It’s exciting to work with him and it’s enjoyable.”