Wyss eager to share Giro experience with Team NetApp

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Marcel Wyss is happy and relieved to have found a new team at this time of year, and is looking forward to helping Team NetApp - hopefully at the Giro d'Italia. The Swiss rider is ready to not only share his experience from two Giro participations, but also to play an important role in the team time trial.

Wyss, 25, is only one of four riders on NetApp with Giro experience. “I have ridden it twice, and as a helper for (Denis) Menchov and (Carlos) Sastre, learned a whole lot.  This experience was extremely important and the more experience a team has, the better,” he told Cyclingnews.

“But I am also valuable because of my time trial abilities. I will surely be a big support at the team time trial on the fourth day in Verona.”

He admitted that he usually doesn't come into form until the end of April, at which point he can be seen at the front of stage races. “I want to do that for the team as well.” But he is not thinking only of his own chances. “If a teammate like (Leo) König or (Bartosz) Huzarski need my help at the Giro, I will be at their side.”

Not that the Giro is a certainty, though. “Because it always taks a while for me to get in form, the decision won't be made until the final preparation races. But if I do ride, then I want to improve myself over  2010 and 2011.” In those two years he finished 33rd and 38th.

His NetApp debut will be at the Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali next Tuesday. “In April I will ride Limburg, Pino Cerami, Rund um Köln and Brabant. Then another stage race with the Tour of Turkey.”

Wyss rode for Scott-American Beef in 2008 before joining Garmin-Cervelo for two years. In 2011 he was with the ill-fated Geox-TMC, and he rode for the Swiss Continental-ranked Atlas Personal-Jakroo team early this season.

He was “very happy” to sign with NetApp. “I was always convinced that I didn't belong in the third league, but as time goes by, you begin to have doubts. At any rate, NetApp is one of the best ProConti teams and it was a relief to get a place here so late.”