Two weeks before the first Grand Tour of the season, the Giro d’Italia, Cannondale Pro Cycling attends the Tour of Romandie, which kicks off today. The team will race with two goals: to refine the condition heading into the Corsa Rosa and also to fight for a stage win.

The hard route of Tour de Romandie will be useful for Basso as he continues his build up to the Giro and the fine tuning of his form.

“The result at Giro del Trentino was expected,” explained Basso. “Since January I worked on resistance and less on the quality of the performance. I don’t have many race days in my legs, which is a handicap when it comes to following the accelerations of those already in race form. In Romandie I’ll work hard to take another step forward. Results won’t be so important: I’m confident to take them at the Giro d’Italia.”

As well as Basso, Viviani will race the Tour de Romandie to be at the top for the Giro d’Italia, where he will play the role of main sprinter for Cannondale. After the Ardennes Classics, Moser will attend the race in search of the form that saw him win the Strade Bianche.

Cannondale line-up for Tour of Romandie:

Ivan Basso, Elia Viviani, Moreno Moser, Alessandro De Marchi, Paolo Longo Borghini, Alan Marangoni, Fabio Sabatini and Cameron Wurf.