From Turin to Milan, three weeks in Italy, starting from the north, arriving in Foggia, as far south as possible, to play the main part of the race again on the top of the boot. The Giro d'Italia proposes the first grand tour of the yearThe UAE Team Emirates will be challenged in many directions.
The eight of the first UAE Team Emirates
With eminent Italian presence in all its lines, from riders to staff, it will have a competitive eight in all the lines of the race, without neglecting any of the objectives that hang from a three-week tour.
Dressed by Gobik for the Giro d'Italia is formed by Valerio Conti, Alessandro Covi, Joe Dombrowski, Davide Formolo, Fernando Gaviria, Sebastian Molano, Max Richeze and Diego Ulissi.
"It's a well-balanced team with a lot of pedigree."is how Team Manager Joxean Fernández Matxin.
Role distribution
In principle Davide Formolo is the man in the background. "It's a special race for me, here I achieved my first victory as a pro." recalls the rider about that stage he won solo in 2015. "Davide is our man for the overall, he has three top ten in grand tours and we believe he can improve" notes Matxin.
Then there is Diego Ulissi, a legend in Italy, "with eight victories and several days that suit him perfectly" presents the UAE Team Emirates manager. With Dombrowski and Conti, leader a couple of Giros ago, in team duties, the other part of the group, the sprinters, is presented.
Here Fernando Gaviria, winner of five stages in the Giro, is the pivot on which all the work revolves.. "For Fernando we have Richeze and Molano who will be with him on the flat stages," says Matxin, who does not hide his weakness for Covi, "who is making his debut in a grand tour".
In short: "We are talking about a very important race for the team and we want to be protagonists in each stage".
For the "Bella Italia
Ahead an interesting route starting from the capital of Savoy, Turin, with a time trial of less than nine kilometers, which will mean the first of two, because the final will already be in Milan, with decisive power over the winner, as we saw last year in the autumn version of the Giro.
In between, there will be several marked days already in the first week. Some broken, with eminently Italian appeal, such as the arrival at the medieval Sestola and the first high finish at the top of Ascoli Piceno with Campo Felice on the second Sunday of the race.
The resumption of the Giro will take place among Tuscan vineyards and white sterrato en route to Montalcino. It will be the start of the second phase of the race, that which will return through Emilia Romagna to the north as a hors d'oeuvre to Monte Zoncolan, already in the decisive stretch of the race, there where the ambassador of GobikIvan Basso will win his second victory in the pink race. The second cycle of stages of the Giro will conclude with a dolomitic day par excellence, reaching the paradise of Cortina d' Ampezzo after climbing Fedaia, in other words Marmolada, Pordoi and Giau.
The final week will be an "in crescendo" in hardness, with a first day at the top in Sega di Ala, plus the Alpe di Mera and the climax of the Spluga Valley 24 hours before arriving in Milan, whose Duomo will again be witness to a cyclist who, with the Giro in his pocket, will surely have a very different life ahead of him.
PhotosBettiniPhoto / Fizza Photo
