Team Giant-Alpecin heads to this year’s Giro d’Italia following a hugely successful 2014 edition with three stage wins. Once again the goal is to win a stage and allow the team’s riders to gain experience over the 21 days with more than 3,000km of racing.
The team announced earlier in the month that sprinter Luka Mezgec (SLO) would definitely be lining up in San Lorenzo, and he will be joined by a strong team with lead-out capabilities and also riders who can take their chances in the breakaways if and when the opportunities arise.
The opportunists in the lineup include Simon Geschke (GER), who will head to the Giro following a strong comeback in Liège-Bastogne-Liège after recovering from a fractured collarbone, as well as Tobias Ludvigsson (SWE), who will also have the opportunity to develop his long time trial skills in stage 14 with the 59.4km individual time trial.
This will be the first appearance in the Giro d’Italia for Americans Chad Haga and Caleb Fairly. Haga rode his first Grand Tour, the Vuelta a España, last year and Fairly did the same at the 2013 Vuelta. The first Chinese rider ever to start in the Giro d’Italia, Cheng Ji, will be present again at the starting line in San Lorenzo.
Coach Addy Engels (NED) is looking forward to the Giro: “Our primary target will be the sprint stages with Mezgec, as we have a strong lead-out team including Nikias Arndt (GER), Bert De Backer (NED) and Tobias Ludvigsson (NED).
“In the Giro there are always some stages that are too tough for a bunch sprint and not hard enough for the GC contenders. For these days we will bring riders such as Geschke and Tom Stamsnijder (NED) to Italy to aim for a good stage result.”
RACE
Giro d’Italia (WT)
DATE
09-31/05/2015
WEBSITE
www.gazzeta.it
COACH
Addy Engels (NED)
LINE-UP
Nikias Arndt (GER)
Bert De Backer (BEL)
Caleb Fairly (USA)
Simon Geschke (GER)
Chad Haga (USA)
Cheng Ji (CHN)
Tobias Ludvigsson (SWE)
Luka Mezgec (SLO)
Tom Stamsnijder (NED)
