Eyebrows were raised when Giro d’Italia organisers RCS Sport announced their wildcards for this year’s 97th edition of the Italian Grand Tour. Switzerland’s IAM Cycling and African outfit MTN-Qhubeka were two to miss out, despite the latter having won last year’s Milan-San Remo courtesy of Gerald Ciolek. In their place were Team Colombia, Yellow Fluo and Bardiani-CSF, with the latter two helping RCS to increase the number of home teams on show.

But Bardiani-CSF look determined to take advantage of their chance to shine on the big stage, with a strong showing in Oman kickstarting their year nicely. Their bright green jerseys were also on show regularly in Qatar, and their efforts on stage one in Oman will certainly not have gone unnoticed. Nicola Boem’s efforts in the break started the day and Nicola Ruffoni managed to sprint to third place. There will always be pressure on teams to justify their selection for the biggest races, but on this showing Bardiani-CSF are certainly capable of doing so.