Intro:

Elia Viviani says he's ready to lead Italy's challenge in the men's road race at the Baku European Games.

Script:

SOUNDBITE (English) Elia Viviani, Italian cyclist:

"Sure, after the Giro I have a good condition and a recovery for one week, then I have two weeks to train and improve the sprint, and also for all the conditions, because after three weeks, for the sprinter, sure you lose a little bit of the sprint. We worked in this direction for our competitiveness here, and sure, this is an important race for the national team. Next year we have the Olympic Games, and when you wear your country's jersey it's fantastic. All Italians see the TV for support here. So this is a really important race for us, and we have a strong team for tomorrow. So the parcours is not really easy, but we have a complete team."

SOUNDBITE (English) Elia Viviani, Italian cyclist: (on the route)

"Yeah, sure, it's the same as a classic, no? It's a particular race because we start with 120 riders, minimum, and it's not the same as the other races, but sure it's difficult to control. It's a really technical parcours (the profile of the route), and the cobbled sector is not easy, and sure, it's not easy to arrive in the sprint, in the group sprint, the big group sprint, but sure that tomorrow there's a small group that goes to the finish line for the sprint, and maybe some attack for some guys, for example (Niki) Terpstra or (Julian) Alaphilippe. It's really good parcours for attacking in the last 10 kilometres."