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184 riders, 23 teams. Who rides and what are the tactics and objectives for each and every team? Each have contenders to win the pink jersey and the other competitions on offer, whereas other teams simply need to make a breakaway to get publicity for their sponsors. The glory of a stage win is also very important for all 23 teams taking to the road.
Grand Tour season has finally arrived as the 104th Giro d’Italia gets underway in Turin.
23 Intermarché–Wanty–Gobert Matériaux (Belgium)
It is hard sometimes to think that this team is a World Tour team. Maybe that is slightly too harsh but perhaps they need a bit of time to prove themselves. Not every team has money flowing and chucked around like confetti nowadays and Intermarché are a prime example.
Italian Andrea Pasqualon is their best bet for a sprint success but when up against other top sprinters, it’s unlikely Pasqualon will actually win. A reduced bunch sprint would be a better race scenario for him. Czech rider Jan Hirt, who did finish 12th at the 2017 Giro starts as does a former stage winner in Estonian Rein Taaramäe.
Objective: Stage wins and breakaways
22 Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè (Italy)
One of four UCI pro-continental teams who line up with a wildcard entry. Bardiani arrive as the only 100% Italian team. Experienced riders such as Giovanni Visconti and Enrico Battaglin will be keen to possibly take a stage win. Battaglin himself took a stage in 2018 when riding for Jumbo-Visma but for Bardiani themselves they haven’t won a stage at their ‘home’ Grand Tour since 2016, when a young Giulio Ciccone won in Sestola, where this year’s race visits again on Stage 4.
Filippo Fiorelli at the age of 26 might be an outside bet to win a sprint, but like Pasqualon at Intermarché, the opposition are more likely to overpower lesser known sprinters.
Objective: End the drought of five years without a stage win
21 Groupama FDJ (France)
The plan was for Thibaut Pinot to start as race leader, but injury has put all that out of the question. Whether Pinot rides the Tour again is another question, but fellow French climber David Gaudu is also scheduled for the Tour. That leaves Groupama FDJ with different objectives, especially when they won four stages and the maglia ciclamino with sprinter Arnaud Démare last year.
With no Démare, the team have Sébastien Reichenbach and Rudy Molard as two riders who have the talent to go out and get a stage win. Reichenbach himself is usually Thibaut Pinot’s wingman, so a little bit of freedom for the Swiss rider means a re-examination of his own objectives. All eight riders in the team have a great chance to take some stage wins in Italy.
Objective: Stage wins and breakaways
20 Eolo–Kometa (Italy)
This is the team run by cycling legend for good or for ill Alberto Contador. Spanish based but Italian-registered means that they can ride the Giro, now they’ve got to show why they deserve a place. Founded in 2018, EOLO-Kometa were promoted to UCI Continental level just this year, and now they’re making a Grand Tour debut.
Manuel Belletti at 35-years-of-age is their best bet for a sprint and best of luck to British rider Mark Christian. He’s ridden the Beaumont Trophy, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain – now comes a three-week Grand Tour.
Objective: Getting into breakaways
19 Lotto Soudal (Belgium)
Lotto Soudal arrive with arguably the best sprinter on paper. Caleb Ewan has one big goal for 2021 – to ride all three Grand Tours and win stages at each. Three career stage victories at the Giro so far, the team has a purpose to make that four and more. Ewan should win again in Italy with Lotto Soudal at his service, especially in the good company of his lead out wing-man Roger Kluge.
The legend that is Thomas De Gendt is also around to go on a De Gendt breakaway. He does it when it suits him, it’s what the Belgian does best! He could also be joined by fellow countryman Harm Vanhoucke, the 20-year-old did finish third on one mountain stage last year.
Objective: More sprint victories for Caleb Ewan
18 Team Qhubeka ASSOS (South Africa)
Sprint victories are the target for European road champion Giacomo Nizzolo, who has started the Giro seven times previously without taking a stage win. Nizzolo will be hoping for eighth time lucky and has lead out man Max Walscheid to help.
At 38-years-of-age, Domenico Pozzovivo will target the general classification but winning the Giro overall is remote. It will be his 15th appearance at the Giro and in Victor Campenaerts, Team Qhubeka ASSOS have a rider who can time trial and go on the break.
Objective: Sprint success of Nizzolo, Pozzovivo targeting stage wins and Campenaerts for the time trials
17 AG2R Citroën Team (France)
After the departure of Romain Bardet and Pierre Latour, AG2R have no objectives as a team. There are no genuine Grand Tour ambitions but attention towards the Classics. In Clément Champoussin there is a new emerging French talent at just 22-years-of-age and this Giro will be a huge step forward in his young career. This won’t be his first Grand Tour after debuting at the Vuelta last year, so it remains to be seen how he performs at a totally different race.
Breakaway hopefuls are in abundance. Tony Gallopin has stage victories at the Tour and Vuelta, now just a Giro one is left on his radar. Italian Andrea Vendrame is perhaps the team’s best chance for a stage win, a sprinter who can sprint but also get over hills.
Objective: Protect Champoussin for his development and Andrea Vendrame for potential sprints
16 UAE-Team Emirates (UAE)
UAE-Team Emirates go into this Giro with an open goal for team leader Davide Formolo. The Italian has often been considered a GC challenger but in recent years Formolo seems to have a better opportunity in winning stages that include tough terrain.
Davide Formolo arrives at this Giro as leader and he’s a former stage winner, so keen to win another one!
Fernando Gaviria starts as UAE’s designated sprinter but can he bring back his previous years of sprinting dominance. In 2017 he took four Giro stages on his Grand Tour debut, in 2018 two stages at the Tour, and since then not much has happened. Gaviria will be very much looking for a bounce back.
Italian riders Valerio Conti who wore pink in 2019 and Diego Ulissi, the punchy rider who can win on terrain that suits him on his day, starts with stage wins in mind.
Objective: Stage wins and sprint chances for Fernando Gaviria
15 Trek-Segafredo (USA)
Vincenzo Nibali rides his tenth Giro d’Italia as a two-times former winner, but he himself has played down his chances following a wrist injury. Nibali’s days are numbered and that’s not harsh to say so. The shark of Messia is a legend of cycling, one of the greatest Grand Tour riders of his generation, but 36-years-of-age, retirement is the watch word for Nibali.
Trek-Segafredo will ride with other options such as Dutchman Bauke Mollema and former King of the Mountains winner Giulio Ciccone, who hasn’t raced since the Volta a Catalunya but has certainly trained well for this Giro. Mollema did perform well at the Ardennes classics, so turning up for the hillier stages at this race will be to his benefit. If Nibali (below) falters then stage wins and going for the maglia azzurra will be the aim.
Objective: Going for stages and the mountains jersey if Nibali’s GC campaign backfires
14 Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec (Italy)
It will be good to see Androni at the Giro after their initial wildcard entry was under threat from the Vini Zabù team. A doping case for Vini Zabù now means that Androni are back as one of the four UCI pro-continental teams.
Ecuadorian Jefferson Cepeda will be the star man after finishing fourth overall at the Tour of the Alps and taking the white jersey young riders classification. Cepeda is still only 22 with a bright future, this year’s Giro is a perfect opportunity to showcase his talents.
Youth is in abundance with 18-year-old Andrii Ponomar of the Ukraine and 21-year old Natnael Tesfatsion of Eritrea both riding, so how they perform at such a young age will be interesting. Swiss rider Simon Pellaud did go on the attack at the Tour de Romandie recently, he’s another rider to keep an eye on for breakaways.
Objective: Breakaways and keeping an eye on how youth fares
13 Cofidis, Solutions Crédits (France)
For Italian sprinter Elia Viviani it has been a long time since a stage win at the Giro. When riding for Sky and Quick Step in the past Viviani has been arguably the best sprinter on the planet, but switching to Cofidis hasn’t quite pulled off major victories. He did take his first win for the team back in March at Cholet-Pays de la Loire, but it is taking a long time for him to be a convincing sprinter that can beat the very best.
Elia Viviani does have his trusted lead-out man Fabio Sabatini and his younger brother Attilio Viviani starts his first Grand Tour. By skipping the Tour de France this year because of Tokyo, Elia Viviani will be desperate for a sprint victory in Italy. The big question is whether Cofidis can actually lead him out to success.
Objective: Sprint wins for Elia Viviani
12 EF Education-Nippo (USA)
EF Education-Nippo ride with pink jerseys, but not for the Giro. A new kit last year, a new kit this year, which probably is an improvement from the ducks!
British rider Hugh Carthy starts as team leader after finishing third at the Vuelta last year. Limited time trialling and more mountains than last year’s Giro does mean a more favourable route for pure climbers such as Carthy. While Simon Yates is a British rider destined as the pre-race favourite, perhaps we need to consider Hugh Carthy (below) as a potential Giro champion.
Also look out for 2019 Tour of Flanders champion Alberto Bettiol. The Italian rides his ‘home’ Grand Tour and look out for another British rider in Simon Carr, who can climb well and could excel at the early hillier stages in week one – just 22-years-of-age, it’s Carr’s Grand Tour debut.
Objective: At least a podium place for Hugh Carthy
11 Team DSM (Germany)
Team DSM came very close to winning another Giro after Tom Dumoulin’s historic triumph in 2017. In Jai Hindley, they had a man that could have won the pink jersey if only for a superb INEOS performance and Tao Geoghegan Hart producing a better time trial. Hindley will be hoping that last year’ rescheduled Giro wasn’t just a one off and another rider who will hope to prove himself as not a ‘one-off’ will be Romain Bardet.
Bardet could add support for Hindley or if the Australian falters, then maybe the Frenchman could step into a bigger role. Deciding to skip the Tour could come down to being a benefit for Bardet, moving away from the spotlight the Tour brings on any French GC hope.
Objective: Jai Hindley hoping to go one better and win the Giro
10 Team Jumbo-Visma (Netherlands)
This will be a different Jumbo-Visma team to what we’re used to. All the eggs are in the Primož Roglič to win the Tour de France basket, and for the Giro the aim is sprints for a returning Dylan Groenewegen as well as a GC tilt with George Bennett.
Bennett finished eighth overall at the 2018 Giro. In the high mountains he should fare well but for a podium place he will really need to improve his time trialling. All eyes will be on Groenewegen as he returns after his nine-month ban for causing Fabio Jakobsen’s crash in the low barriers at the Tour of Poland last year.
David Dekker should be leading the sprints who did impress at the UAE Tour back in February.
Objective: Stage wins and a GC tilt with George Bennett and sprints with David Dekker
09 Bahrain-Victorious (Bahrain)
Mikel Landa starts as outright leader for Bahrain-Victorious, the Basque rider often coming close to Grand Tour victory but so near yet so far. 2015 was the last time Landa finished on a Grand Tour podium, incidentally at the Giro. He can climb with the very best but two time trials at this Giro means that Mikel Landa’s weaknesses will be exposed.
Going on the offensive will be Landa’s tactic and he has the team to do it with last year’s fifth-placed rider Pello Bilbao riding in support. Italian rider Damiano Caruso is a top climber and in Matej Mohorič you have a Slovenian who can go in the break, sprint and win a stage – he did exactly that in 2018.
Bahrain-Victorious have a game plan but it remains to be seen if they can pull it off.
Objective: Going for the GC with Mikel Landa at the helm
08 Alpecin-Fenix (Belgium)
A Grand Tour debut for Alpecin-Fenix, the team that is the home Mathieu van der Poel, who is on course to ride the Tour de France.
For now no van der Poel but a Belgian sprinter in Tim Merlier. He has won three one-day Belgian classics so far this season and can contest on hillier terrain as well as a flat parcours. Merlier (below) like other sprinters is likely to quit the Giro once Stage 13 is over, as the terrain in week three is completely mountainous.
Louis Vervaeke starts as a climber so Alpecin-Fenix’s objective should change for week three.
Objective: Tim Merlier for the sprints and Louis Vervaeke to climb well in the mountains
07 Astana Premier Tech (Kazakhstan)
For Russian Aleksandr Vlasov it is a case of unfinished business at this Giro. He had to abandon after only two stages because of illness and is on course to bounce back after coming third at this year’s Paris-Nice and second at the Tour of the Alps. If the pink jersey does fall out of his reach then a high GC placing could also result in Vlasov taking the young rider’s jersey – the maglia blanca.
Racing in Italy as a junior will be added experience for Aleksandr Vlasov and he’ll have a mix of experience and youth behind him to surmount a GC challenge, such as former stage winner Gorka Izagirre and his Spanish compatriot Luis León Sánchez, who both know how to race Grand Tours.
Also, Samuele Battistella and Matteo Sobrero are two young Italians to keep an eye on, a Giro d’Italia that is the next level from junior racing.
Objective: All in for Aleksandr Vlasov
06 BORA-Hansgrohe (Germany)
German climber Emanuel Buchmann will be riding his eighth Grand Tour, a rider who finished fourth at the 2019 Tour but since then hasn’t quite delivered the potential he is capable of.
Buchmann riding for BORA will be overshadowed by former three-times world champion Peter Sagan’s return to the Giro. Last year was his debut race and he’s come back for more. Sagan took Stage 10 in typical Sagan showman style, riding solo all the way to the line.
Peter Sagan is also nearing the end of his contract with BORA so some stage wins would do nicely and as his recent stage win in Romandie proved, the Slovakian can still easily win not just solo but also in bunch sprints. It’s what Sagan does best, attacking when the terrain gets hard, winning on an uphill finish but in with a shout when the sprints come close.
Could Sagan (below) also claim the maglia ciclamino points jersey too?
Objective: Possible GC challenge with Buchmann, Sagan targeting stage wins and points jersey
05 Movistar Team (Spain)
Over the years Marc Soler has been left frustrated at being the rider always in the shadows of Nairo Quintana, Alejandro Valverde and new riders joining Movistar such as Enric Mas and now Miguel Ángel López.
For this Giro Marc Soler gets a firm leadership role, targeting the GC for the first time in his career. At last year’s Vuelta he performed well taking Stage 2 and finishing 18th overall. A 4th place overall at the Tour de Romandie would have been encouraging for Movistar.
Italians Davide Villella and Dario Cataldo will ride alongisde him in support and look out for 21-year-old American Matteo Jorgenson who has showed some good results at Paris-Nice and the Tour de la Provence. This will be a first glimpse at how Jorgenson fares in a major three-week tour.
Objective: Marc Soler aiming for a strong GC finish
04 Israel Start-Up Nation (Israel)
Irishman Dan Martin goes into this Giro as a rider with outright leadership and some freedom. Seven years ago he crashed out of the race in the opening team time trial in Belfast in 2014 but it is Dan Martin’s aggressive style that makes him a rider to watch.
In recent editions of the Tour de France he has faltered and suffered with injuries, so perhaps a change of scenery might be a benefit. If Dan Martin can climb well and avoid any setbacks then a stage win and a podium might not be out of the question.
Other riders for Israel Start-Up Nation include British rider Alex Dowsett who took a first-ever Grand Tour stage for the team last year. Dowsett is a decent time triallist too, not the best when up against others, but going for a breakaway stage win again will be a top aim for both him and the team.
Objective: Stage wins and a possible GC attempt with Dan Martin
03 INEOS Grenadiers (Great Britain)
The defending champions of this Giro d’Italia but will they actually defend the title? With Tao Geoghegan Hart opting for the Tour de France instead, all hopes are pinned on 2019 Tour champion Egan Bernal. The Colombian will wear the number one but questions remain on his back injury that is seemingly hampering his chances of winning this Giro.
Bernal may not be under too much pressure considering his injuries but for sure INEOS will be keen to repeat their seven stage wins from last year’s race. Russian Pavel Sivakov rides as a back up to Bernal, a rider who can perform on the toughest of stages.
Gianni Moscon will also provide some power as a road captain and in the time trials, Spaniard Jonathan Castroviejo and the current world champion Filippo Ganna will want to take a stage. Ganna as an Italian time trial world champion will no doubt be buoyed by the home crowd. All three TT’s were won by him last year, he’ll start as favourite in both TT’s starting and ending the Giro.
Objective: Egan Bernal targeting pink, Pavel Sivakov as a back up and Filippo Ganna to excel at the time trials
02 Deceuninck-Quick Step (Belgium)
Of all the teams Deceuninck-Quick Step look set to be an exciting team to watch at this Giro. João Almeida starts as designated leader but all eyes will be on Remco Evenepoel. The youngster was meant to ride the Giro last year but a crash at Il Lombardia paid any chances of that. Italian bookmakers put the young Belgian down as second favourite but with no racing in the legs in quite a while it remains to be seen how he will perform on his Grand Tour debut.
Quick Step can count on Almeida, the Portuguese superstar from last year’s race. He wore pink for 15 days before fading in the third week, a heroic effort and all the experience gained will be valuable. British rider James Knox also rides as a solid climber, his fourth Grand Tour start.
Objective: A GC challenge with João Almeida with the unknown prospects of Remco Evenepoel
01 Team BikeExchange (Australia)
The Australia team have one big aim – to win the Giro d’Italia with an on-form Simon Yates. The British rider has a huge chance to take just his second Grand Tour after winning the Vuelta in 2018. The experiences of being the dominant force at the 2018 Giro before falling away in week three will be paramount to Simon Yates, a rider who has learnt so much since that particular year of disappointment and success.
Director sportif Matt White has done a reconnaissance of key stages, so the feeling must be that the team feel well up for winning this Giro d’Italia. Simon Yates (below) will be backed by a strong domestiques such as Mikel Nieve and how Nick Schultz performs as Yates’s ‘last man’ in the mountains will be key.
Objective: Win the Giro with Simon Yates
