For Elia Viviani, second place in Sunday's Schwalbe Classic circuit race (the traditional prelude to the Tour Down Under, which starts Tuesday) may have been "slight," but the Italian sprinter was nonetheless Cofidis' delighted with his new teammate.

Lotto-Soudal's Caleb Yuan took the win by about four bike lengths, but Viviani assured the 30-year-old that the team effort was "super" and "on point" in what was his first race with his new French WorldTour team.

"I'm really happy to experience the team's approach to things," Viviani told the press at the finish. [Marco Mathis did a perfect job all the way to the front, and Nathan Haas and Kenneth Van Bilsen did a great job of making up positions from around lap 10 or 12 to the last lap.

"OK, it was a short race, but it was a good sign of how we are going to work this year."

Consoni, who moved to Cofidis from UAE Team Emirates, played the lead-out role and eventually finished on the podium.

"Finishing second and third showed me that I have a super strong last man. I knew I had a super strong last man as I finished second and third. For example, I was pretty far back in the last corner because EF Pro Cycling and Team Ineos were in the lead. [With 400 meters to go, I was still a bit behind. Caleb had a great sprint. It's clear the team has a winning mentality and is taking the right approach."

As for the rain that fell before and during the race, which fortunately became much stronger after the race was over, Viviani admitted that the road surface became slippery.

"But I was happy enough. It's too easy to start this race thinking, 'The Tour Down Under starts in two days. I've spent the last few months preparing for the Tour Down Under, so I wanted to race and it felt good to get that adrenaline rush from sprinting again. It was slippery but I raced at the front and it wasn't even dangerous.