Damiano Caruso locked on Giro d'Italia: "I hope I can give some emotion again like I did in 2021"

Whilst 2022 provided a different challenge, Damiano Caruso will be looking to return to the race that has seen him best perform in the past in search of more success: the Giro d'Italia. 

"I was strong in the first part of the season, right from Tirreno-Adriatico and Romandie, then in Sicily I had extra motivation because I was racing at home, but I was also good at the Dauphiné," Caruso told the media following the Bahrain - Victorious presentation. "Unfortunately at the Tour I had problems from the beginning. At that point I had difficulties and already during the race I felt bad and couldn't focus on my goal and at the end of the second week I had covid. Basically my season ended there. I had to stop for two weeks and it wasn't easy to find a peak of form in 2023."

After finishing in second place at the 2021 Giro d'Italia Caruso emerged in 2022 as an outsider for the Grand Tour podiums. He had eyed the Tour de France, and whilst he managed to perform throughout the first part of the season, his plans derailed at the Tour where he was a level below his normal self and eventually abandoned with Covid-19.

"I lived the race intensely. I haven't had many opportunities to race in Sicily in my career," he continued, having won the Giro di Sicilia, his home race. "Even though the Giro has been through it several times, I've never been able to make things coincide. I saw that race as a great opportunity for me to be seen on the house. It was a goal that I prepared with extreme dedication, with a great desire to do well. I went to the mountains for two weeks alone to try to do everything in the best possible way, training on those roads that I would have done in those stages. Winning in front of my family and my children meant so much to me. It gratified me almost like winning the Giro," he shared.

"My plan for next year for better or worse remains the same in the first part," he continued, and detailed his exact plan for the first half of the season: "I will do [Volta a la Comunitat] Valenciana, then Ruta del Sol (Vuelta a Andalucia, ed.), passing through Tirreno - Adriatico and Milano-Sanremo. Then in April, after a training camp in the mountains, I'll do the [Tour de] Romandie and then almost certainly, based on the plans made with the team, I'm thinking of participating in the Giro."

"The goal in the Giro would always be the same. In the meantime, look good. We will present ourselves with a well-equipped team, both to do well in the stages and in the standings," he said. Caruso won't be the only strong weapon from the Bahrain team however, with the likes of Jack Haig and Gino Mäder virtually confirmed in the lineup for the Corsa Rosa, all of them potential GC candidates.

"Personally my goal will be to win a stage, then along the way see how the condition is, support any team leaders or maybe be in charge of the general classification. At this moment too early to say, we will see in the weeks before where we will be in the preparation. For now, I'm not ruling out anything. Currently I just want to prepare myself with the utmost effort and dedication that I have always put into it," Caruso detailed.

"I would have liked to have done the Giro last year. Clearly you can't always do what you want, especially in big teams like this," he revealed. "I also had to accommodate the needs of the team. We all know how it went. For me it means a lot to go back to the Giro because there I had the best experiences of my career. I can't wait to go back to savor the cheering of the people on the street. I hope I can give some emotion again like I did in 2021."

He was asked if his role in Italian cycling would change now that long-term friend and former teammate Vincenzo Nibali has hung up the wheels. "I honestly don't feel this pressure. I don't consider this my role. I can't compare myself to Nibali, he has written important pages in this sport," he answered.

"As you say, it's a role that I don't feel is mine, I've simply been good at making the most of my abilities depending on the circumstances. I don't think I'm his heir, mostly because age is a factor against me. in Italy we don't have the new Nibali, but I think we have to be patient and I think we will too sooner or later," Caruso concluded.