Bahrain Victorious set for Giro d’Italia challenge

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com     

Team Bahrain Victorious cycling team have named a seven-rider squad for this year’s Giro d’Italia, the first Grand Tour of this season’s UCI World Tour.

The three-week, 21-stage race gets underway on Saturday and continues until May 28, featuring three time-trials, six mountain stages and a total of 3,489 kilometres along the way.

Bahrain Victorious head to the “Grande Partenza” in Abruzzo with Jack Haig as leader.

He will be joined in the race by Santiago Buitrago, Damiano Caruso, Gino Mader, Jonathan Milan, Andrea Pasqualon and Jasha Sutterlin.

The riders will tackle a total of 51,400 metres of altitude gain, including three stages with over 5,000m each, and over 70kms against the clock.

Lead Sports Director for the three weeks will be Gorazd Stangelj, who explains more about the team’s overall objectives: “Jack is our GC [general classification] leader, and we also have Damiano, Gino and Santiago.

“Of course, we will look at the situation day by day.

There is some very strong competition at the race this year, particularly with so much time-trialling, so our goal of the podium would be a really big achievement.

“Every day we will give the riders tasks and opportunities, as well as protecting the leaders. We will look at every stage to see where we might find our moment of glory.”

The Giro d’Italia claims to be “The world’s toughest race, in the world’s most beautiful place”, and every year the final week is loaded with climbing.

Three days in the high mountains and a gruelling time trial up the first category Monte Lussari before a closing sprint in Rome.

Stage 19 in the Dolomites is seen by many as the “Queen Stage”: the 183 km from Longarone to Tre Cime di Lavaredo takes in five formidable ascents in the last 100kms, and a 5th summit finish.

The 106th edition of the Giro promises high drama and excitement from start to finish, in the shadow of some of Europe’s most breathtaking scenery.

The UCI Road World Championships, Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France form the Triple Crown of Cycling.