Final overall victory at the Giro d’Italia may usually fall to the best-equipped individual, but the scare Alberto Contador endured at the hands of Astana’s collective might last year was a stark illustration of the importance of the team.
Running the rule over the support available to the favourites for this year’s crown on Thursday morning, Gazzetta dello Sport trumpeted Vincenzo Nibali’s Astana team as the pick of the race, but questioned the Sky squad at the disposal of Mikel Landa. “Astana has the strongest team. Landa, who’s helping you?” read the headline.
While Sky has a solid team at this Giro – Nicolas Roche, Philip Deignan and Mikel Nieve have all finished in the top ten of Grand Tours, after all – it is true that the line-up supporting Landa is not as star-studded as was originally planned when he arrived at the British squad last winter.
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For one reason or another, no fewer than three of the men originally slated to play key roles in Landa’s Giro bid were unable to make it to the start in Apeldoorn, with Leopold König, Beñat Intxausti and Sergio Henao were all ruled out in the weeks leading up to the race.
König began his season as normal with consistent showings at the Challenge Mallorca and the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana but has not raced since finishing in 10th place overall in Valencia on February 7.
6th overall in last year’s Giro – and 7th in the previous year’s Tour de France – König’s absence from the Sky roster during the spring was the source of some puzzlement in the Czech press, due to an initial lack of information on the matter.
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