2016 Giro d’Italia preview: The sprinters
Plenty to offer the fast men at this year's Giro
There’s a lot to offer the fast men in this year’s Giro d’Italia, with seven stages that favour the sprinters. Out of the first nine stages, five are likely to end in bunch sprints.
The two road stages in the Netherlands are carbon copies of one another, Stage 2 running from Arnhem to Nijmegen and Stage 3 heading back to Arnhem (home of the Bridge Too Far) from Nijmegen via a different route that just happens to be the same 190-km distance and possesses the same profile.
The 99th Giro d’Italia may start in the Netherlands, but Italy won’t be out-flatted by the Dutch. Stage 12 takes Stage 1’s time trial flatness and rolls with it for 182-km.
The day before is almost as level, with a little Cat. 4 ripple near the finish.
So who will benefit from this marked horizontal trend? The two biggest names are Marcel Kittel (Germany/Etixx-QuickStep) and compatriot Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal).
Kittel, winner of eight Tour de France stages and two Giro stages in 2014, had a nightmare season last year when he was plagued with illness. His transfer from Giant-Alpecin to Etixx has been a success, with seven wins and the overall Tour of Dubai title. Recently, Kittel took the flowers on Stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie. He didn’t start the rainy last stage.
The Gorilla has 10 Tour de France wins, two Vuelta triumphs and took his first Giro stage last season in Castiglione della Pescaia. He started the season with two wins in Spain before breaking ribs in the Volta ao Algarve. The injury made for a difficult spring, but he recently took a win in the Tour of Turkey.
Both Etixx and Lotto-Soudal are sending teams that are set up for stage wins and not GC men, though Etixx’s Luxembourger Bob Jungels may surprise.
The Italians have several sprinters looking to win on home soil. Elia Viviani (Sky) took Stage 2 of last season’s Giro and has two 2016 wins on his palmares. Sacha Modolo (Lampre) had two victories in the 2015 Giro and sprinted to two wins recently in Turkey. Giacomo Nizzolo of Trek took the points classification last season without a stage triumph; after two wins in late-April’s Tour of Croatia he’ll be looking to change that.
Another name that must be included is young Australian Caleb Ewan of Orica-GreenEdge. He already nabbed his first Grand Tour win last season in the Vuelta a España at the age of 21. Ewan came flying out of the gate in January, with two first prizes in the Tour Down Under and one at the Sun Herald Tour. On April 29th he was runner-up in the second stage of the Tour of Yorkshire.
