Forget about the Ardennes, I'm really hyped about the Giro del Trentino.
The route:
Stage 1 (TTT) - Riva › Torbole (12.1k)
Stage 2 - Arco › Anras (220k)
Stage 3 - Sillian › Mezzolombardo (204.6k)
Stage 4 - Malè › Cles (160.9k)
Stage 1:
Stage 2:
The final climb
Stage 3:
Stage 4:
The final climb
The startlist
A few words about the field, the big teams are Astana, Sky and AG2R. Both Sky and Astana have a really strong team to support their leaders, AG2R on the other hand comes with 3 potential leader, Bardet, Pozzovivo and Peraud.
The Italian NT gives guys like Finetto and Wackermann a chance to ride the race Androni comes with a strong trio of climbers, Pellizotti, Torres and Bernal, that's a lot of firepower for the mountains and I'm curious to see how Bernal will do here.
Bardiani bring a strong team built around Pirazzi and Colbrelli, you might know that I'm a bg fan of their young climbing talent Giulio Ciccone, a strong neopro who already showed his talent as an U23 rider.
Gazprom bring a very solid team, they could be a darkhorse for the TTT, the winner of Coppi e Bartali Sergey Firsanov should be their team leader.
Nippo Vini Fantini are bringing Cunego and Bole, but Cunego's form is a bit of a question mark.
Southeast are bringing a pretty weak team, they really should have resigned Monsalve.
Last year Bora-Argon 18 beat Sky in the TTT, but this time they're bringing lots of climbers, Nerz, Buchmann, Konrad, Mühlberger and Cesare Benedetti for the hilly stages. Jose Menes was 6th on the GC in 2015, but if form is a question mark, he had a bad crash in the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana.
Caja Rural are bringing a great team with Prades, Madrazo, Pardilla and the young british climbing sensation Hugh Carthy.
d'Amico - Bottecchia are bringing Luis Mora, a 21 year old rider from Venezuela who won the youth classification of the Vuelta a Tachira and finished 11th on gc, he could be an interesting prospect.
Skydive Dubai are bringing Palini and Santaromita and the strongman Maher Hasnaoui.
The Brazilian NT could be pretty interesting, they are bringing mighty Kleber Ramos and two interesting young guys from Funvic. The first one is João Gaspar, born in 1992, in 2015 he already rode for Funvic as a stagiaire (correct me if I'm wrong) and finished 2nd on the queenstage of the Tour de Rio, ahead of Oscar Sevilla and Gustavo Cesar Veloso, that's impressive.
The 2nd one is Murilo Affonso, born in 1991, 1,75 m tall
and 63 kg heavy, the winner of the 2016 Volta Ciclistica Internacional do Rio Grande do Sul (ahead of his teammate Kleber Ramos). I don't know if the Funvic guys will be able to perform in Europe, but it should be an fun race to watch, the race is going to be live on Rai Sport.
The route:
Stage 1 (TTT) - Riva › Torbole (12.1k)
Stage 2 - Arco › Anras (220k)
Stage 3 - Sillian › Mezzolombardo (204.6k)
Stage 4 - Malè › Cles (160.9k)
Stage 1:
Stage 2:
The final climb
Stage 3:
Stage 4:
The final climb
The startlist
A few words about the field, the big teams are Astana, Sky and AG2R. Both Sky and Astana have a really strong team to support their leaders, AG2R on the other hand comes with 3 potential leader, Bardet, Pozzovivo and Peraud.
The Italian NT gives guys like Finetto and Wackermann a chance to ride the race Androni comes with a strong trio of climbers, Pellizotti, Torres and Bernal, that's a lot of firepower for the mountains and I'm curious to see how Bernal will do here.
Bardiani bring a strong team built around Pirazzi and Colbrelli, you might know that I'm a bg fan of their young climbing talent Giulio Ciccone, a strong neopro who already showed his talent as an U23 rider.
Gazprom bring a very solid team, they could be a darkhorse for the TTT, the winner of Coppi e Bartali Sergey Firsanov should be their team leader.
Nippo Vini Fantini are bringing Cunego and Bole, but Cunego's form is a bit of a question mark.
Southeast are bringing a pretty weak team, they really should have resigned Monsalve.
Last year Bora-Argon 18 beat Sky in the TTT, but this time they're bringing lots of climbers, Nerz, Buchmann, Konrad, Mühlberger and Cesare Benedetti for the hilly stages. Jose Menes was 6th on the GC in 2015, but if form is a question mark, he had a bad crash in the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana.
Caja Rural are bringing a great team with Prades, Madrazo, Pardilla and the young british climbing sensation Hugh Carthy.
d'Amico - Bottecchia are bringing Luis Mora, a 21 year old rider from Venezuela who won the youth classification of the Vuelta a Tachira and finished 11th on gc, he could be an interesting prospect.
Skydive Dubai are bringing Palini and Santaromita and the strongman Maher Hasnaoui.
The Brazilian NT could be pretty interesting, they are bringing mighty Kleber Ramos and two interesting young guys from Funvic. The first one is João Gaspar, born in 1992, in 2015 he already rode for Funvic as a stagiaire (correct me if I'm wrong) and finished 2nd on the queenstage of the Tour de Rio, ahead of Oscar Sevilla and Gustavo Cesar Veloso, that's impressive.
The 2nd one is Murilo Affonso, born in 1991, 1,75 m talland 63 kg heavy, the winner of the 2016 Volta Ciclistica Internacional do Rio Grande do Sul (ahead of his teammate Kleber Ramos). I don't know if the Funvic guys will be able to perform in Europe, but it should be an fun race to watch, the race is going to be live on Rai Sport.
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