With their time in Spain now behind them, the women’s peloton focus now turns to Italy and one of the oldest races on the calendar – the Giro d’Italia Women. Today, the team reveal their seven-rider squad that is set to take on nine challenging days of racing.
The event begins with three days that on paper look set to end in some type of bunch sprint finish, but the third day does include a late sting in the tail which could shake things up. Those who enjoy when the road goes uphill will come to the fore the following day when a mountain time trial will create the first big GC gaps, before a day with over 3000 metres of leg-sapping climbing on stage five. The fast finishers who have recovered from the previous day will find stage six to their liking and possibly stage seven; unless the attacking opportunists want to use the climb in the finale as a launchpad. The penultimate stage will go a long way to deciding the overall standings with the famous Colle dell Finestre and a summit finish on Sestriere, but there are enough challenging climbs on the final day to make sure there is no easy ride to the finish.
The team arrive at the race with a slight shift in focus, as initial plans from the beginning of the year had the squad target the GC with Eleonora Ciabocco alongside stage success, but due to her ongoing recovery after the crash at the Vuelta, the team will now fully focus on stage hunting.
Coach Callum Ferguson explains more: “Our sporting plans for the Giro d’Italia will now see us target day results. Arriving at the race without a GC finisher means that it will be a different approach to our second grand tour of the year, but still an exciting one, and one that will offer us nine big opportunities throughout the race. There are quite a few sprint stages that can suit us and where we will look to Rachele as our fast finisher, while there are some stages that can offer possibilities for the early breaks or late attacks. We will look outside the box at how we can deliver the best chances for ourselves each day, and work together as a team towards achieving that.”
Line-up
Rachele Barbieri
Robyn Clay
Pfeiffer Georgi
Gaia Masetti
Josie Nelson
Mara Roldan
Becky Storrie