Giro d'Italia to remain Pozzovivo's main goal

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Domenico Pozzovivo swaps Colnago-CSF for Ag2r-La Mondiale in 2013 but the Giro d’Italia is likely to remain the diminutive climber’s main objective in his first season at the French team.

The 30-year-old Pozzovivo made a leap in quality during this season’s Giro by soloing to victory at the summit finish at Lago Laceno, and he now steps up to riding for a WorldTour team for the first time in his career.

“Changing teams is a big thing, so you have to reflect on it a lot,” Pozzovivo told Velochrono.fr. “I think that I’ve reached maturity a little later than others, but I hope that my career will be long enough to show that I’m capable of getting results in the WorldTour.”

Pozzovivo has already shown his ability to compete at WorldTour level during the Giro d’Italia, and it seems likely that the corsa rosa will again be the centrepiece of his race programme in 2013. The Basilicata native will then weigh up whether to ride his debut Tour de France or spare himself for the Vuelta a España.

“There’s a very strong chance that I’ll ride the Giro d’Italia,” Pozzovivo said. “After that, I’ll have to make a choice between the Tour and the Vuelta.”

Pozzovivo will begin his campaign in France, at the GP La Marseilleise and Étoile des Bessèges, before lining up at the Tour of Oman in February. “Beyond that, it’s not totally fixed, but I think that I might be at Tirreno-Adriatico and the Volta a Catalunya,” said Pozzovivo, who is also looking forward to experiencing a number of major races for the first time.

“The classics, especially Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the week-long races like the Dauphiné or the Tour de Suisse… I can’t wait to discover all of that,” he said. “I’m certainly a little apprehensive but that’s cancelled out by the excitement of discovering all of these new races.”