Intro:

Svien Tuft celebrated his 37th birthday on Friday (May 9th) by becoming the first rider at the 2014 Giro d'Italia to wear the leader's Maglia Rosa - or pink jersey - after Orica Greenedge won the tour's opening team time trial in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Svien Tuft, Giro d'Italia leader (on Orica Greenedge's aims for the Giro):

"We came here with a guy like Michael Matthews who's definitely good in the bunch sprint and we'll be riding for him for the next few days but I expect it to be super difficult. It's really windy out there and you get some exposure out of the ocean road and yeah you could see some interesting things happen. Hopefully we can keep it together and look after our fast man."