Ag2r La Mondiale was not lucky in this first week at the Giro d'Italia. The French team lost one of two leaders. Jean-Christophe Péraud has crashed out of the race after landing on his face in a spill some 100 kilometres from the finish of stage three. Domecino Pozzovivo now has the full leadership. 

He is really motivated by the first Italian stages as he knows the region. "Racing in the south is a very special moment and as my home, it’s very important to be here with the Giro. It’s been great to be in the Netherlands with so many fans, but Italy is another story altogether", he told Cyclingnews. "Normally the people are very keen to see the race in the south, they all come out of their houses, they are on the roadside and very enthusiastic about it. It’s not every year that we have it on our roads here, so when it comes they are very happy."

AG2R sports director Laurent Biondi added. "The Giro d’Italia is always a real motivating factor for him, but here in the south, even more so where he knows the roads so well. This is his region, part of his family came to see him on the rest day and there will surely be more of his friends and relatives on the route over these coming days."

"He was very motivated for this race and we had two leaders for this race, and now we’ve got one. It was a big blow for the team, and is a reminder of how useful it is to have two leaders for a race."