Vincenzo Nibali is the man to beat as he returns to the Giro d'Italia for the first time since winning it in 2013.
The Italian national champion skipped his home grand tour in each of the past two years to focus on the Tour de France, winning the yellow jersey in 2014 before a disappointing 2015 season saw him come under pressure from young compatriot Fabio Aru within the Astana team.
So while Aru will lead the way in France come July, Nibali's focus is back on claiming pink in the Giro, which starts in Holland on Friday with a short time trial around Apeldoorn.
Nibali has blamed his poor form last year on 'too many parties' in the wake of his Tour win in 2014, with a bad winter's training setting him up for the struggles to come.
Although most of the big guns are holding their fire for July's Tour, Nibali will need to be back on song to hold off the challenge from his former team-mate Mikel Landa, now at Team Sky, as well as the likes of Movistar's evergreen Alejandro Valverde and Katusha's Ilnur Zakarin.
"I've prepared for the Giro d'Italia as best I could," said Nibali, whose only wins this year were the Tour of Oman in February and the opening time trial of the Giro del Trentino last month.
"Looking back at the past two years, the most improved young rider has been Mikel Landa. He's one of my main rivals for this Giro, and there are also good young riders in Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) and Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge)."
With three flat stages in Holland to start with, the real battles will be on hold until later in the race, which heads to the southern tip of Italy before working its way back north, climaxing with a series of mountain stages before a sprint into Torino to finish on May 29.
The first summit finish comes on stage six from Ponte to Roccaraso in the Apennines. Nibali has his eyes on the testing 40.5km time trial from Radda to Greve in Chianti which forms stage nine - a route with plenty of climbs and even more descending.
"The first big day will be the time trial in Chianti, with very fast downhill sections and changes of rhythm uphill," he said. "The Chianti time trial could favour me over Landa, who is a rider we know very well. Time trialling has always been a weakness for him, although he's a great climber and he'll be the man to beat in the mountains.
"He descends well, although he isn't a real specialist. However, we can't focus on him alone when there are riders like [Alejandro] Valverde and Dumoulin in the race."
Spaniard Landa will be riding the Giro for the third time, having won two stages, but in each of the past two editions he has been there to support Aru. The 26-year-old joined Sky in the winter with the promise of getting his chance to lead a grand tour team, and he has not had to wait long for his chance.
"It's a great opportunity for me to lead Team Sky at the Giro d'Italia, after a spell riding with Vincenzo Nibali at Astana," he said. "He's very strong, uphill as much as downhill. He's got real power and he'll be hard to beat."
Source: PA-WIRE
