Having redisplayed the sprinting speed which earned him five stage victories last year and three in this edition of the Tour de Langkawi, Italian fastman Andrea Guardini has confirmed that he will compete in his first Giro d’Italia this year, and that he will aim for success there.
Guardini was tipped to ride the race as a first year pro in 2011, with his team telling him that he would be selected if he won a stage in the Presidential Tour of Turkey. He duly did so, but Farnese Vini later decided with him that the Giro might be too much, too soon, for the 22 year old.
He went on to clock up a total of eleven victories, equaling the total set by Mark Cavendish during his own debut season four years earlier.
“This year, for me in May there is the Giro, because there are so many stages for me,” he confirmed to VeloNation in a video interview conducted after stage four. “We will try to win one stage against almost the top riders of the world.”
A very quick rider who has taken three wins in a row during this year’s Tour de Langkawi, he is now just one victory away from equaling the stage haul record of nine, as set by Graeme Brown.
He was asked yesterday during the post race press conference (see separate video below) if he felt if he could equal it soon. He agreed that the record was looking fragile, but also said that the tougher parcours on stage five meant that there was a little more uncertainty than the three road race stages held thus far.
“We will have to see how it goes during the stage, and mostly we’ll have to see how my team-mates are going,” he explained. “ It mostly depends on them as they spent a lot of energy taking me to the win today. It will depend more on them than me if I am up there for the win tomorrow or not.”
The answer implies a confidence, as it essentially states that if his team can get him into position, that he feels he can win again. However one difference to Guardini compared to certain other sprinters is that his feet is firmly on the ground, with an open, approachable nature being refreshing to see.