Giro d’ Italia [curr_year] – Teams and riders
Four man in Quick Step Floors will be unveiling their new kit for 2017 races with one of the members Tim Boonen citing that he will be retiring in style after the Giro d’ Italia heats. As for the kits which are a deep sky blue with white highlights, was welcomed as being apt for the races by Belgian rider Boonen.
Marcel Kittel said that the new kit would have the team stand out from other riders in the peloton because of its unique and fresh design. The tour of Italy will prove whether this new look may improve their chances.
Sunweb won their first ever world title in Luxemborg UFI cyclo world championships. Joris Nieuwenhuis navigated his way through the snowed in tracks which were made a lot slipperier as the sun finally came out later on during the course.
This win procured them the rainbow jersey, so the question is whether they will be able to do the Corsa Rosa in this year’s Giro. This year also saw them unveil their new jerseys in time for what is ahead of them in the New Year.
The team’s great news of the year is that John Dibbens will be defecting from team Wiggins for team Sky for the roster of matches they are set to race in 2017. Other jumps from Wiggins include Tao Geoghegan Hart and Owain Doull.
From the French quarters are Team Sky newcomers Kenni Elisonde from FDJ and from Astana we see Diego Rosa. But with influx of fresh meat from other teams has seen exits from long time members like Lars Peter Norbaugh and Andy Fenn to Team Aquablue whereas Xabier Xando is retire from the beginning of the season.
This team is eyeing the Gent-Wevelgem and Milan-San Remo in this year’s heat of the Giro d’ Italia. The team has been expanded to make a 50 man riding machine with the newer signings being Greg Daniel an American, Michael Gogl and Jarlinson Pantano. Hanging their boots in this season are retirees Fabian Cancellara, Frank Schleck and Ryder Hesjedal.
Despite this the team is optimistic that with the new line up of fifty strong they just might walk away with the spiral shaped cup of the Tour of France according to their sources and they’ll get a chance to show out their new uniforms too.
The main duo in this team has left their fans hanging by not first finalizing their contracts for 2017 as yet. This comes in light of the Giro d’ Italia in late May. The competition lasts for three weeks and features cyclists from all over Europe and also some American teams like this one.
King said that he would eventually pick another team to ride for and that he is thankful for the riding opportunity gained from Cannondale-Drapac. Gaimon, the other half of the team’s options for the future, are still as yet unknown; this is after he trailed Spaniard Nairo Quintana in the Tour De San Luis.
First timers Dimension Data are all set to compete in the 2017 Holland hosted Tour of Italy. The team line up (if fortunate) will put African cyclists on the map by qualifying in the highest classification which, in this case, would be the GC.
The lineup includes South African based Eritrean Merhawi Kudus, Igor Anton, Omar Fraile, Jay Thomson, Kristian Sbaragli, Jaco Venter, Kanstantsin Siutsou, and Johann van Zyl, and these are the youthful international break out faces we should expect to see in this cameo and hopefully other European Circuits.
Another famous French duo and Tour De France favourites Pinot and Vichot and their boss the George Clooney looking Marc Madiot are being looked at to pedal out in their home colors of white and blue.
Pinot finished tenth place in the Tour de France in 2013 and, what soon followed, was an erratic on and off season with perhaps the major comeback episode being him managing to come in third place in 2014. In 2015, he came down with an illness and was unable to compete effectively as he should have due to the spate of illnesses.
The team announced that they would be dropping German hair manufacturers and instead teaming up with Swedish sponsors Alpecin for the Tour of Italy 2107 tournament. This comes after their decision to drop their contract obligations to Russian sponsors in favour of the brand Alpecin; this should be clearly emblazoned on their red jerseys somewhere.
They said this move would form an iron clad front for coming tours. This move began taking shape in the 2016 peloton. Earlier, Alpecin broke away from a contract entered into with erstwhile partners Giant.
This team has set their sights on the 100th of the Giro d’ Italia. The riders are Adam Hansen, Bart Leysen, and Jurgen van der Broeck. Broeck opted out of the 2016 version of the Tour of France and instead the team’s alternative leader will be Tony Gallopin, who managed a stage victory in the previous year’s tour of France.
Tim Wellens, one of the youngest members of the Team Lotto, has had only one participatory accreditation in the Giro d’ Italia. This was in the year 2014 when the team was known as Lotto Belisol.
The team should be allowed to show off their new black and yellow gear of their Japanese sponsor Shimano. Steven Kruijswijsk is set to head the line up of racers to race.
Coach Richard Plugge said that preparation is important in their training in light of the upcoming 1000th anniversary of the Tour Of Italy; having done away with the Amsterdam races at the beginning of 2017. Team member Dell Agnello got to wear the coveted Corsa Rosa in the 2016 races, but only managed a disappointing fourth place. In the Spanish Vuelta de Espana he is gunning for the General Classification.
Vincenzo Nibali just happens to be the golden boy of the Giro in 2016 and this year will reveal whether he will be able to latch onto this win. Last year’s tour saw him manage to take back home the Maglia Rosa and the Corsa Rosa by which the event is also known.
Movistar are back onboard for this ride as Nibali and teammate Nairo Quintana will navigate the three stage course beginning in Sardinia, then reaching its half way mark at Sicily, before finally ending in Milan. They started racing together in 2013 where Nibali bagged the Pink jersey. Quintana is one of the stars of this event.
The team is made up of both male and female racers. Annemiek Van Vluten opened big this year by winning the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Race in Melbourne. This is a stride ahead for fellow female team member as the male set their mark on the 100th Giro d’ Italia in 2017.
This is significant since she started out as the team’s domestique. On the male side, Caleb Ewan did the team proud by clinching a fourth stage victory in the same Melbourne circuit that the team contested in at the beginning of the year. He credited his victory to teamwork on Orica’s part.
The team is currently a four man ensemble with their latest addition being that of the Frenchman Rudy Barbier who crossed over from another Roubaix- Lille Metropole, joining three other teammates that then went on to extend their contract durations by two years. The trio were Axel Domont, Mikaël Chérel and Jan Bakelants Hubert Dupont.
He echoed his enthusiasm of having to graduate from the Continenal level, but is a little anxious as to whether he will be able to rise up to the bar of expectations that come with his jump to Ag2r–la Mondiale.
John Ochowitz, the team manager of American racers BMC, said that the team would be at the opening of this year’s tournament in Italy. He added that the team would be looking for stage wins behind the backpedalling of their youthful line-up and some of the older favourites like Philippe Gilbert whose participation in this year’s tournament is doubted because of a fractured finger injury he had gotten in April 2016.
Medical rules dictate that it would be premature to have him back on the track without having perfectly convalesced as this would affect chances of wins.
This year’s wildcard invitations sent out have seen competition veterans Bardiani CFS. Here, teams are invited to participate in the Corsa Rosa (pink jersey) tour of Italy. Failure to oblige to this invitation as in the case with Nippo Vini Fantini is that their race careers might be negatively affected according to forecasters.
Together with the other teams racing, the total number of teams is expected to be twenty two. Wildcard invitations for season two in Lombardia are expected to be made public soon after a vetting process of the teams gunning for this spots. Bardiani-CSF are great riders and they are expected to do well in 2017.
Nibali, star racer of team Bahrain Merida, is taking part in the Vuelta San Juan in Spain. All eyes are on him as success in stage rounds in this tournament will determine his placement in the Giro d’ Italia happening the same year. Vincenzo Nibali has had a charismatic effect on the team since joining them after racing Arabian prince Nasser Khalifa in Bahrain.
Manuele Boaro, Navardauskas and Kanstantin SIutsou are going to be joining him this year in the Giro d’ Italia and as yet there haven’t been any concerns raised about his being able to compete at optimum performance in both tournaments.
Team Astana’s rider Fabio Aru, will compete both in the Vuesta A Espana and the Giro d’ Italia 2017 edition. This was decided when they were convened in their hometown of Kazakhstan in 2016. They took this time out to reflect on the past year’s mistakes in expectations of things to come in 2017. Astana team mate Luis Leon Sanchez finished 16th in the Tour Down Under, where racers saw the 90 km win remain with the Australian cyclist Caleb Ewan. Astana Sports Director Stefano Zanini was optimistic that the down under tour had a positive ending.
The said team is but a rookie on the 2017 scene but their prospects look promising; new in the sense that they first entered the races as Lampre in the early nineties right through to the early 2000’s.
Other sponsors jumped in later, but they retained the Lampre brand until this sudden change in 2017; which is the name they will be riding under for the Giro d’ Italia this year. The Italian championship lineup includes Diego and Rui Costa current reigning world champ which is quite the resume so from any angle their chances look pleasant.
German cyclists Bora Hansgrohe are possibly going to be breaking in their new gear at the Tour of Italy. The Hansgrohe part of their name comes from their new sponsor that will be having them decked out in all black jerseys with highlights of blue and white.
Their other sponsor Bora are sharing the remaining advertising space left of their new set up. The team’s name hence comes up to Bora Hansgrohe, where capitalization on the Bora is suggestive that they might be the main sponsors of the team in 2017.
