Video: Alex Rasmussen discusses Giro TTT victory

The start of the 2012 Giro d'Italia was special for Alex Rasmussen (Garmin-Barracuda) as the opening three stages took place in his native Denmark. Rasmussen placed third in the opening time trial and was well-placed to take over the maglia rosa during the stage 4 team time trial, but unfortunately the 27-year-old Dane fell off the pace on a climb and was dropped by his teammates.

Garmin-Barracuda, however, was able to put Ramunas Navardauskas into the pink jersey with their stage victory on Wednesday, which was a relief to the Dane.

"I'm happy we won the team time trial, I'm disappointed I didn't stay with the team," Rasmussen told Cyclingnews. "It was a comfort for me that we won it because I felt that I let the team down yesterday."

Rasmussen told Cyclingnews that the team's goal is to retain the Giro d'Italia leader's jersey as long as possible, and the team is well-positioned with Ryder Hesjedal near the top of general classification to take over the maglia rosa once the terrain gets hillier.

Rasmussen has personal ambitions late in the Giro as he hopes to go one place higher than last year's result in the final stage time trial where the Dane finished second to David Millar by six seconds.