2015 Giro d’Italia preview: The contenders
The field of the 2015 Giro d’Italia is not a deep one. Out of the Big Four of Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali, Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador, only Contador is vying for his second maglia rosa. But there is a quartet of riders who are the favourites to stand on the top step in Milan on May 30, perhaps in pink, and a half-dozen who have aspirations for the podium.
Alberto Contador (Spain/Tinkoff-Saxo): Contador is the most recent Grand Tour champion, having beaten Froome at the 2014 Vuelta a España, and is one of five previous winners lining up in San Lorenzo al Mare.
El Pistolero has shown flashes of brilliance this season, like the winning attack on Alto de Hazallanas in the Ruta Del Sol that distanced Froome. He has also been unable to answer attacks, like the next day of the same Spanish race when Froome returned the favour. Contador has also been out-clambered by Quintana and Giro rival Richie Porte.
The Spaniard hasn’t finished lower that fifth in the three stage races he’s run this season, but last year at this time he had already won two. Contador hasn’t competed since the Volta a Catalunya’s finish on March 29 because of a minute crack in his lower back suffered in that race’s second stage.
Tinkoff-Saxo is supporting him with muscle in the form of Michael Rogers, Roman Kreuziger and two-time winner Ivan Basso. Contador will lose time in the races against the clock to Porte and Uran, but he will try to build a base in the first long week.
Richie Porte (Australia/Sky): Porte is in the form of his life, having won the last three stage races he’s entered: Paris-Nice, Volta a Catalunya and the Giro Trentino. The Tasmanian was also runner-up in the Tour Down Under.
Sky has assigned Czech Leopold König and Spaniard Mikel Nieve as the mountain lieutenants and brought in the Belorussan workhorses of Kiryienka and Siutsou. Porte will have the time trial advantages, as Sky is a crack unit and its captain is the Australian chrono champion.
Porte has never placed higher than 7th in the seven Grand Tours he has contested, and that was in his first, the 2010 Giro d’Italia. Last year’s Tour de France saw him come 23rd.
Rigoberto Uran (Colombia/Etixx-QuickStep): Runner-up over the last couple of editions, Uran feels his time has come. As the Colombian time trial champion, he won’t fear the chronos. Uran was on the Tirreno-Adriatico podium and came fifth in the two other stage races he has contested in 2015.
Uran is the only Giro favourite who raced the recent Tour de Romandie. Like Contador, he is heading to the Tour de France.
Fabio Aru (Italy/Astana): Aru was the great stage race revelation of 2014, and his third place in the Giro while picking up a stage win was where he made his mark. After his fifth in the Vuelta, built on two stage wins, he was officially a Grand Tour favourite.
Aru was ordinary in March’s Paris-Nice. His only other 2015 stage race was the late-March Volta a Catalunya in which he took sixth. Since then Aru has been ill with a virus that kept him out of the Giro Trentino and Tour de Romandie.
Astana is a good team time trial unit, but Aru is wildly inconsistent in individual races against the clock. He’ll have along the in-form and appropriately named Diego Rosa, Tanel Kangert and Spaniard Mikel Landa, who recently turned heads by coming runner-up to Porte in the Giro Trentino.
Others hopefuls: As we saw last year with Fabio Aru, the Giro d’Italia final podium often holds a surprise. When Ivan Basso won his two maglia rosa, the runners-up were David Arroyo and Jose Enrique Gutierrez. In the past decade third place has gone to Thomas De Gendt, John Gadret, Marzio Bruseghin, Eddy Mazzoleni and Jose Rujano—career highlights for all. The chances of a hopeful usurping a favourite’s step in Milan are pretty good.
Domenico Pozzovivo (Italy/Ag2r) would have benefitted from a course with more climbing, but he’s been in the top-10 of all four stage races he’s finished, taking two mountain stages along the way. He has Canadian Hugo Houle in his squad.
Movistar is sending Spaniards Benat Intxausti and Jon Izagirre, each a stage winner. It is unusual for a WorldTour stage race, let alone a Grand Tour, to be without a Movistar name in the final top-10.
Ryder Hesjedal (Canada/Cannondale-Garmin) fought like mad last year to place ninth after a disastrous team time trial and showed a lot of grit winning a stage later in the Vuelta. He hasn’t been as active this season as he was in 2014, but his form has started to improve. The 2012 champion was 24th in the Tour de Romandie.
Colombians Johan Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) and Darwin Atapuma (BMC) are due to bust out in a Grand Tour. They’ve both raced solidly in the beginning of the season.
Russian Ilnur Zakarin of Katusha must be included after his victory in the Tour de Romandie over Froome, Uran and Quintana. He also placed ninth in the Vuelta Pais Vasco and tenth in the Tour de San Luis.
