Tiberi's coach shares update after his rider abandoned the Tour of the Alps: "As for the Giro..."

The Italian will start the Giro with only 13 race days in his legs (Tiberi quit during the second stage of the Tour of the Alps). It's not an ideal preparation, but Bartoli told Bici that he isn’t too worried. "Of course, for the first week, having good preparation is important. But when it comes to the Giro overall, I'm not worried about the situation. Antonio hasn’t raced much, so maybe having one less race could already make a difference."

While the Tour of the Alps is an important preparation race for many riders ahead of the Giro d'Italia, it was certainly the case for Tiberi too. "We chose to race the Tour of the Alps because we knew it would be good for us. We'll see in the coming days what he can do and how he goes about it," said Bartoli, who noted that it wasn’t just Tiberi showing good form. "He (Tiberi, ed.) worked very well with Damiano (Caruso, ed.), who is also in excellent form. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a Caruso like this."

While the preparation hasn’t been ideal for the young Bahrain Victorious rider, sometimes the start of a Grand Tour can also help in doing a bit of preparation. However, Bartoli doesn’t see that opportunity this year. "The time trial on the second day demands good preparation, and overall, it’s a very demanding Giro all the way to the end. So there will still be some work to do because of the missed race days, but we’ll wait to see if everything goes well, and then we’ll have him ride half a Tour of the Alps at home."

Stomach issues forced Tiberi to abandon the race, but the Italian’s condition has somewhat improved by now. "On Thursday, he was still in the hospital waiting for test results. I hope he can ride again on Friday, maybe just a short spin initially. You can't really call that training, but within a few days, we should have the test results, and then we can start the more serious work."

Despite an unsuccessful preparation in the Alps, Tiberi and Bahrain Victorious had a solid preparation for the Giro overall, with plenty of altitude training. "It was a proper preparation for a Grand Tour — a lot of altitude gain and a lot of aerobic work. In one-day races, you might do a bit more anaerobic work, but for Grand Tours it’s different. Antonio handled it well."

And so, despite everything, we'll see a motivated Tiberi at the start of the Giro in Dürres. The Italian will be hoping to improve on his strong result from last year, when he finished fifth overall and won the young rider classification. Bartoli sees clear progress compared to last year. "He has grown physically, but also in terms of awareness," said his coach, although he remains cautious. "So let’s wait for the test results, and then we'll figure out the best way to recover the lost ground."