Michele Scarponi has been joined again on a training ride by feathered friend Frankie – the yellow and blue macaw who is a local celebrity in the Astana rider’s home town of Filottrano in Italy’s Marche region.

As he did earlier this month, Scarponi posted a video of himself with the bird, whose plumage matches the colours of his Astana team kit, to Twitter.

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 “Come here Frankie,” he says. “There she is!”

Then, as the bird pecks at his head as it did in the previous video, he says, “You really like this helmet, don’t you?”

Frankie then flies off briefly before returning to perch on Scarponi’s shoulders again.