18th start at the Giro d'Italia! Domenico Pozzovivo matches Giro record as he leads hopeful Bardiani team
Cycling
VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè are one of the many teams to reveal their lineup for the Giro d'Italia at the start of this week and they are led by a veteran and a novice. Domenico Pozzovivo looks to leave his mark on the race's history.
And the Italian will do so. After racing the Giro for the first time in 2005, the 41-year old will start the race for the 18th time. This matches the record set by Wladimiro Paniza who started the same amount of times from 1967 to 1985. Pozzovivo only managed to find a contract with the Italian team in late February - something which has now happened for three seasons in a row.
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The veteran will not start the race without ambitions however, having finished on the Top10 of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali and Giro d'Abruzzo. He will seek to add a second Giro win to his palmarès, 12 years after his triumph in Lago Laceno. Next to him in the lead is a rider with less than half his age; Giulio Pellizzari won a stage and finished second at last year's Tour de l'Avenir and is the team's big hope to success in this race. He finished eighth in the recent Tour of the Alps.
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The team will back up Enrico Zanoncello for the sprints, the 26-year old sprinter recently won and led in the Giro d'Abruzzo. The rest of the team will seek to be in breakaways and put the team on the big screen: Manuele Tarozzi, Luca Covili, Filippo Fiorelli, Martin Marcellusi and Alessandro Tonelli.
VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè for Giro d'Italia:
Manuele Tarozzi
Luca Covili
Filippo Fiorelli
Martin Marecellusi
Giulio Pellizzari
Domenico Pozzovivo
Alessandro Tonelli
Enrico Zanoncello
Luca Covili
Filippo Fiorelli
Martin Marecellusi
Giulio Pellizzari
Domenico Pozzovivo
Alessandro Tonelli
Enrico Zanoncello
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A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
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He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
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- He should have been allowed to go to Movistar. Right now both arent a good fit for each other and are just wasting each other's time and effortabstractengineer08-11-2026
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Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - i did not see it. was the relegation justified or an overly hard decision? and don‘t cross riders deviate from straight lines all the time? bumping into each others when they cut corners, etc … why being more strict with the rules on the finish sprint?Ketterechts08-11-2026
- seems like we are advertising the website with pointless comments…Ketterechts08-11-2026
- So?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- The UCI do have their favorites.
Front24208-11-2026 - On a positive note, you maybe notice turning this topic into a discussion has the benefit of eliminating certain participants who do not see how they can turn it back to their sole interest ;-)Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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- That may be but that was unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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✅ VF Group for 🇮🇹 Giro d'Italia (4/5-26/5) | #Giro Covili, Fiorelli, Marcellusi, Pellizzari, Pozzovivo, Tarozzi, Tonelli, Zanoncello
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