Fabio Aru is regarded as the best Italian talent in cycling and is expected to be the man to succeed Vincenzo Nibali as Italy’s next Grand Tour winner. However, he starts the Giro in a co-leadership role with Michele Scarponi and despite the amount of freedom he will have, he is careful about setting any goals for himself.

"The leader will be Scarponi and I'll try to stay close to him. After that, we'll see what I'm able to do," Aru told Cyclingnews. "I'd like to be able to grow and build on what I did last year. This is my second Giro and I want to test myself and see how far I can go."

Aru had always been considered a talent but the moment the Italians began to really believe he could be a star was in last year’s Giro where he finished fifth on the final summit finish to Tre Cime di Lavaredo behind teammate Nibali and all of this despite being a neo-pro and suffering early on in the race.

"I was a bit ill early on but we were riding to win the pink jersey with Vincenzo, and I hung in there," Aru said. "Certainly it was a bit of a surprise to feel so good at the very end of the race but I still don't know what my limits are."

"I felt a lot of improvements after riding the Giro last year, it was my first Grand Tour, but now I want to see how I'll get on this year. We've got Michele on the team, and he's a contender, so we'll see how things play out."

Despite the pressure on his young shoulders, Aru has not raced much, taking part in 2 days of the Challenge Mallorca, finishing 20th overall in the Volta a Catalunya and finishing 7th in the traditional Giro warm up race, the Giro del Trentino.

"This year I've raced a bit less compared to years gone by, but that was as planned with the team," Aru said. "I've done everything I can to be ready for this Giro d'Italia and now we'll see in the coming days whether the work I've done bears fruit."

Despite not having their best time trialists at the race, Astana finished a respectable 38 seconds of Greenedge yesterday and that gives Aru hope for what is to come but he is cautious too:

"I haven't seen the course yet but I'm sure that it's going to be a tough test, like it always is at the Giro. These three opening stages of the Giro will be quite demanding," Aru said. "We'll see."