Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago-CSF Inox) proved yet again that he is one of the best climbers in the world with a coura­geous ride in the Dolomites at the Giro d’Italia.

Pozzovivo lost time to his over­all rivals on the rain-soaked stage to Piani dei Resinelli but bounced back with deter­mi­na­tion on the stage to Cortina d’Ampezzo. He rode strongly through­out the stage.

He fin­ished sixth in Cortina d’Ampezzo on the twist­ing fin­ish. More impor­tantly, his gutsy per­for­mance lifted him to sixth over­all, just 3:19 behind race leader Joaquin Rodriguez. Young team­mate Gianluca Brambilla fin­ished fif­teenth on the stage and is third in the best young rider competition.

Pozzovivo was the first to the sum­mit of the Passo Giau, with the Dolomite moun­tains and thou­sands of tifosi cheer­ing him on.

“I accel­er­ated near the top of the climb to test my rivals. Scarponi was dropped because he had cramp, while Basso, Rodriguez and espe­cially Hesjedal showed how strong they are. Until then I’d rid­den defen­sively but the stage showed that I can still be one of the pro­tag­o­nists of this year’s Giro d’Italia.”

After is strong per­for­mance, Pozzovivo is now look­ing for­ward to the final moun­tain stages to Alpe di Pampeago on Friday and then to the Passo dello Stelvio on Saturday.

“I love the moun­tains and I know those climb well. They won’t be easy stages but I’ll try my best. If I’m feel­ing good, I’ll go on the attack. Because they’re the last chance to win stages and are where the over­all clas­si­fi­ca­tion of the Giro d’Italia will be decided.”

Italy’s Domenico Pozzovivo maybe one of the small­est rid­ers in the pelo­ton but he proved he is one of big name rid­ers in this year’s Giro d’Italia by win­ning the stage to Lago Laceno near Naples.

The lit­tle Colnago-CSF Inox climber danced on the ped­als of his Colnago M10 bike on the steep­est part of the climb and quickly opened a sig­nif­i­cant lead. He stayed clear over the top of the climb to win alone with the cheers of hun­dreds of his most pas­sion­ate fans cheer­ing his name.

Pozzovivo comes from Policoro in the south of Italy and the stage to Lago Laceno is the most south­ern fin­ish of this year’s race. It was his first ever stage vic­tory at the Giro d’Italia and con­firms he could be an over­all con­tender for vic­tory in this year’s corsa rosa.

“I’m per­haps too lit­tle to think big, I’ll take things day by day and do as well as I can,” he said.

“I fin­ished ninth at the (2008) Giro d’Italia and was strong in the third week, so I’m con­fi­dent about the final week in the moun­tains this year’s Giro d’Italia. It’s not easy to stay at top form for a month but there are a lot of stages that suit me and even if I fade, I can still defend my posi­tion. But first of all I want to win another stage.”

Pozzovivo is now thir­teenth in the over­all clas­si­fi­ca­tion of the Giro d’Italia, just 55 sec­onds behind race leader Ryder Hesjedal of Canada.

The Colnago–CSF Inox nine rid­ers for the Giro d’Italia will aim for suc­cess through­out the three weeks of rac­ing thanks to a bal­anced team of sprint­ers, climbers and aggres­sive riders.

The nine rid­ers that will line-up in Herning in Denmark for the start of the Giro tomor­row are: Domenico Pozzovivo, Sacha Modolo, Enrico Battaglin, Gianluca Brambilla, Stefano Pirazzi, Stefano Locatelli, Angelo Pagani, Marco Coledan and Sonny Colbrelli. Bruno and Roberto Reverberi and Mirko Rossato will man­age the team dur­ing the race.

“We’ve pre­pared metic­u­lously for the Giro d’Italia. We’ve got a well-balanced team. We’re moti­vated and are ready for the chal­lenge ahead. We can’t wait to get rac­ing,” team man­ager Roberto Reverberi said.

Marco Coledan, Gianluca Brambilla and Sonny Colbrelli will be a for­mi­da­ble lead out train for Sacha Modolo; Stefano Pirazzi and Enrico Battaglin are expected to be aggres­sive in break­aways, while Domenico Pozzovivo will aim to shine in the moun­tain stages and the over­all classification.

The Colnago-CSF Inox team pre­pared for the Giro d’Italia at the Giro del Trentino and the Tour of Turkey. Pozzovivo won the Italian stage race and impressed in the moun­tains, while Modolo took a psy­cho­log­i­cally impor­tant stage win in Turkey after some excel­lent lead out work by his teammates.

“We’ll go on the attack but with intel­li­gence. We’ll focus on obtain­ing excel­lent results. That means we’ll be in the key break­aways. Not just to get on tele­vi­sion but to make it all the way to the fin­ish and win,” Reverberi said.