The German Milram team is satisfied with its performance so far in this year's Giro d'Italia. The race has spent the last three days in The Netherlands, the home country of team manager Gerry van Gerwen.
"Our start in the Giro d'Italia has been exactly as we would have wished," admitted van Gerwen on the race's first rest day. "With the mountain jersey and our passionate, aggressive riding, we have really distinguished ourselves in the Netherlands. Now it is up to us to keep our spirits up and to take the next step forward tomorrow in Italy."
Currently Milram's Paul Voss wears the green jersey as leader in the mountain ranking. In addition, he also leads the ranking as most aggressive rider and is tied for second place with Tom Stamsnijder (Rabobank) for both the most escape kilometers (189km) and in the ranking for intermediate sprints.
"Before the Giro we said that we would cause some surprises in the race, and we have pulled off the first one with our great start," he said. "Now the others will have to keep their eye on us for further surprises."
Yesterday saw the team's sprinter Robert Förster finish third in the hectic stage, with teammates Linus Gerdemann and Thomas Rohregger also finishing in the top ten. Gerdemann currently sits in eighth place overall, only 12 seconds out of the race lead. The German is now in a good position to go hunting for the Maglia Rosa towards the end of the week.