It's an open Giro d'Italia in 2019, with only two former winners – Bahrain-Merida's Vincenzo Nibali and Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin – among the starters this year. Chris Froome (Team Ineos) won't be back to defend his title, preferring to concentrate on trying to win a fifth Tour de France, which leaves last year's runner-up, Dumoulin, as the best of the rest on paper.
Three time trials – two of them with uphill finishes – should suit the Dutchman, who won the race in 2017, while a packed third week of high-altitude climbing may be a bit less to his liking, and will suit last year's third-placed finisher, Astana's Miguel Angel Lopez, a little more, as well as two-time Giro winner Nibali, who skipped last year's Giro in favour of the Tour, but is back on home turf in a bid to win a third title.
Before his training crash at the start of May, with the resultant broken collarbone ruling him out of this year's Giro, Team Ineos's Egan Bernal would of course have been a shoo-in to be included on this list of riders to watch, and an almost certain podium contender – if not winner – of the race itself.
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Ineos have now been left with the headache that comes with the possibility of having to field a three-pronged attack at the Tour as a result. Last July, Bernal was content to work for both Froome and Thomas; this year, providing he recovers in time, Bernal may well expect a more prominent role to make up for missing the Giro. It all means that Ineos – previously Team Sky – find themselves in the rare situation of not having a race favourite among their number for this year's Giro, which gives their young guns, like Tao Geoghegan Hart and Pavel Sivakov, an opportunity to shine.
With a sprint battle royal also expected between the likes of Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep), UAE Team Emirates' Fernando Gaviria and new Lotto Soudal signing Caleb Ewan – and look, too, for Groupama-FDJ's Arnaud Démare, Bora-Hansgrohe's Pascal Ackermann, and perhaps CCC Team's Jakub Mareczko – we can expect fireworks aplenty from the protagonists at this year's Giro, both on the flat stages and from the overall contenders up in the mountains. It's going to be a wild ride.
Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb)
The overall winner at the 2017 Giro d'Italia, second there again last year, and second at the Tour de France two months later is an enviable record for any rider. Tom Dumoulin thought about skipping this year's Giro altogether in favour of putting all his eggs into the Tour basket – before he saw that the route of this year's Giro boasts three individual time trials.
Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott)
Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma)
Mikel Landa (Movistar)
Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana)
Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida)
Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep)
Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal)
Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates)
Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Ineos)
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/10-riders-to-watch-at-the-2019-giro-ditalia
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