Elia Viviani says that Team Sky are capable of building a sprint train for him that can conquer some of the biggest races in the world. He will once again hunt a Giro d’Italia stage win and will lead the team at Ghent-Wevelgem.

Viviani told skysports.com: “The first big race for me is Gent-Wevelgem – that’s the big focus of the first part of the year. Then after that my priority will be a Giro d’Italia stage win.”

“We have some big riders for the sprint. If I think of the perfect train, I think of Geraint Thomas, Ben Swift, Bernie Eisel, Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe. It’s the perfect lead-out.”

“Maybe all of these riders will be at Gent-Wevelgem and, if they are, I will have one of the strongest teams.”

At 25 years old, Viviani has already won 30 pro races and has wins at events like the Dauphine to his name, plus two stage wins where he beat Mark Cavendish in the 2014 Tour of Turkey.

Once Cavendish left Sky, they turned away from focusing on bunch sprints, but Viviani says they can successfully return their focus to the events with his as the leader.

“Team Sky is not normally a sprint team but the mentality this year is changing. If we try for the sprints we can take pressure off the team if we can take some victories and stage wins.”

He admits he lacks the physical power of the big names, but says a good lead out train at Sky can help him beat those riders to win big races.

“I don’t have the power of Kittel or [Andre] Greipel. I am about 500 watts down on them, but I am ready with a good lead-out to make up for it.”

“We will work as team to arrive at 150m in the perfect position and hopefully that will help me beat sprinters like Kittel.”