Yesterday he said he wanted to tackle today's time trial with good humor, and today on the Tirreno-Adriatico stage, he flashed a big smile.

"I come from many days of training, many kilometers, many elevation meters covered, many kilometers traveled using the time trial bike, and this result shows that we have worked well. The race? In the first kilometers I pedaled at the planned pace, then at the turnaround Dario (Cioni, his coach, ed.) told me to give it my all, and it went well".

And this is just the beginning: "I have a beautiful, important, and intense month ahead. I need to be perfectly relaxed to tackle the intense program we've studied, and for now, I can say that I'm relaxed and calm. The secret? In recent days, I've been helping my dad in the garden: cycling in the morning, working in the afternoon. I was just telling Marco Villa that as soon as I arrived here at the training camp, I asked our masseur Piero Baffi to fix my back and arms because... it was tough. Much better to do a good distance...".