Giulio Ciccone makes season debut at Tour de Romandie: "I'm not 100% fit, but we are working for the future"

Giulio Ciccone was obviously excited to finally return to action with today's 2km prologue at the Tour de Romandie 2024. The Lidl-trek rider was making his seasonal debut after he finally got rid of his should problem. Ciccone clocked one of the worse times among the field today, yet to score big is not the goal in Swiss race, he confirms to Cycling Pro Net.

"I'm still here," Ciccone said smiling. "It's hard to start over with a difficult race like this. I'm not 100% fit, but we are working for the future, so I'm very happy to be back racing."

Ciccone, who had already announced beforehand that he wouldn't make it to the start of the 2024 Giro d'Italia, then admitted that he doesn't have great expectations at this Tour de Romandie.

"The goal is to survive, then I hope to be able to do a good job for the team and also to improve my condition," he concluded.