The 100th edition of the Giro d’Italia is set to kick off Friday in spectacular fashion on the island of Sardinia off the Mediterranean coast of Italy. Following Thursday night’s official team presentation in the port of Alghero, riders will embark on the 206km Stage 1 opener that will likely come down to a battle among the sprinters.
Team Sunweb has selected a strong roster of nine riders that will look for stage wins and opportunities in the general classification. The team is led by Tom Dumoulin, the Dutchman who has won multiple Tour de France stages and last year wore the maglia rosa GC leader’s jersey during the opening week of the Giro.
“After a good period of preparation and training, we are feeling super motivated for a great 100thanniversary edition of the race,” said Team Sunweb coach Aike Visbeek. “We’ve just returned from the team’s high-altitude camp in Tenerife and we’ve done video recons to prepare our riders and get familiar with key sections of the course.”
Dumoulin will be supported by veterans including Laurens ten Dam, Simon Geschke and Wilco Kelderman.
“It will be a tough three weeks,” said Visbeek. “For the difficult stages we have Simon, Georg [Preidler], Sindre [Skjøstad Lunk] and Chad [Haga] to support Tom, whereas Laurens and Wilco will be the last guys to go through deeper into the finale. Laurens brings a wealth of experience and Wilco has himself achieved a top 10 here in the past. Tom [Stamsnijder] is an engine that can help us out both on the hills and flats.”
The team will be racing with its TCR Advanced SL bikes for road stages and the Trinity Advanced Pro TT for time trials. They will also have a selection of Giant helmets including the Rev, Pursuit, Rivet and Rivet TT for time trials.
Here is the final Team Sunweb roster for the 2017 Giro d’Italia:
Phil Bauhaus (GER)
Laurens ten Dam (NED)
Tom Dumoulin (NED)
Simon Geschke (GER)
Chad Haga (USA)
Wilco Kelderman (NED)
Georg Preidler (AUT)
Sindre Skjøstad Lunke (NOR)
Tom Stamsnijder (NED)
