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The second of three parts of my Giro d’Italia team preview consists of some key sprinters, and a general classification hope.
Gazprom Rusvelo
Rusvelo make it two Russian teams that take to the start in this year’s Giro, alongside their World Tour counterparts, Katusha. While Rusvelo are a relative unknown to the World Tour fans, they do have a couple of riders that you may have heard of.
Alexander Kolobnev has a very well rounded CV in the hilly classics, having finished second at Liege in 2010 and San Sebastian in 2008, while also finishing runner up behind Cadel Evans at the 2009 world champs in Mendriso. He will be looking for the lumpy stages to make his mark.
Sergey Firsanov comes into the team as a potential top ten general classification rider, having finished in fourth at the recently completed Giro Del Trentino. He also took the general classification win at the Coppi e Bartali stage race, while taking the recent Giro del Appennino. He is a versatile rider as these results have shown, and should do well in his first Grand Tour.
Much like the Continental Italian teams, Rusvelo will look to have a man in the breakaway on most days.
IAM Cycling
Sprinting well is the aim of the game for IAM at this year’s Giro, with multiple sprinters wanting to show themselves as team leader. It will be interesting to see who gets the nod.
Matteo Peluchi, Leigh Howard and Heinrich Haussler are the three men vying for the position of team leader, and each of them has various reasons as to why they should get it.
Matteo Peluchi comes into the Giro with four podiums so far this year, and the ability to beat the very best on his day. At last year’s Tour of Poland, he twice outsprinted Marcel Kittel to victory, a feat that not many have achieved of late.
After a less than successful previous two years at Orica Orica-GreenEDGE, Howard has had a solid start to the season, having a win under his belt from early in the season at the Classica Almeria. He also finished second and showed off his climbing ability at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in early February. For mine, he will be competing with Haussler for the prize to get the leadership in some of the lumpier sprint finish stages.
Speaking of Haussler, he has had a relatively good season thus far, finishing inside the top ten at both San Remo and Paris-Roubaix.
Who will IAM choose to sprint for? A very interesting question indeed.
Lampre Merida
Another team with split responsibilities, with Diego Ulissi and Niemiec going for hill/mountain top stage wins, and Sacha Modolo going for outright sprint victories.
Niemiec is in good form coming out of the Tour of Turkey looking like his climbing legs are working well, with him taking a stage win and a second place mountain finish on two of the stages.
Modolo though for mine is the man we need to be talking about. Against a slightly weaker Griepel who crashed early in the race, the Italian was by far the fastest out of the two and took two stage wins and a second place. He was extremely well supported by Roberto Ferrari, who will be relied upon to place Modolo well in the final 200 metres.
A solid start to the season for puncher Diego Ulissi, with top ten finishes at both Amstel and Fleche Wallonne. This man has achieved well in his home Grand Tour in the past, having taken stage wins in both 2015 and 2014, with another in 2011.
He packs a good sprint in the hilly finishes, and can climb well on the mountain stages. There are many opportunities for him to compete.
Lotto-Soudal
Although Andre Griepel comes back to the Giro for the second straight year, there are a few other options that Lotto have, but the Gorilla you would think is their main avenue for stage wins.
After crashing early in the Tour of Turkey, Griepel recovered well to take victory on Stage 3, and second on stage 5, before quitting the race a day later. Having taken a stage at the Giro last year, he will be looking to add to more stage wins against his German rival Marcel Kittel.
With a lead-out train including Jurgen Roelandts, Adam Hansen, Lars Bak and Pim Lightart, who should have a great chance to add to his Giro stage win tally.
A win for Andre Griepel on Stage 3 of the Tour of Turkey, which was dominated by the work of his teammates.
Adam Hansen will line-up in his 14th Grand Tour in a row, an utterly incredible feat. Watch out for him at number three or four in the lead-out train for Griepel, while he will also look to have his own chances on the hillier stages.
Both Maxime Monfort and Tim Wellens will look to attack in the mountain and hill stages.
Movistar
All in for Valverde are Movistar at this year’s Giro, assembling a strong climbing squad to conquer the high mountains. The almost ridiculously consistent Valverde will try to win the Giro at the first time of asking, with Spaniard having never raced the Italian Grand Tour before.
Once again he comes into a Grand Tour with good form, having won Fleche Wallonne, and two stage wins and general classification at the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon over the last month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyhPIo5NdW4
Valverde showing his form with a win at Fleche Wallonne
His squad is stacked with mountain goats, including Carlos Betancur, Rory Sutherland, Andrey Amador, Jose Herrada, Javier Moreno and Giovanni Visconti, who could all potentially have a chance for stage wins if they get the opportunity.
However, the main objective is the general classification.
A battle between Sky, Astana and Movistar on the climbs will be fun to watch over the three weeks.
Nippo-Vini Fantini
The little prince Damiano Cuengo headlines Nippo’s team for this year’s Giro, with Grega Bole the man for the sprint finishes.
A former winner of the Giro back in 2004, Cuengo will want a good result in front of his home fans. Stage wins on the punchy stages are his best bet, as l think his time climbing the big alpine climbs and being near the pointy end are done.
Grega Bole is a real hard man type rider, who will like the lumpy sprint stages. A win at the G.P. Costa degli Etruschi and a third place at the Trofeo Laigueglia prove that point.
Against World Tour opposition though, l think Nippo will find it hard to grab the stage win they so dearly crave.
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