One hundred and ninety eight riders from 22 teams will start the 2016 Giro d’Italia, with Italian Domenico Pozzovivo wearing the number one dossard.
The previous year’s winner traditionally tops the start list but, in the absence of 2015 champion Alberto Contador (Tinkoff), who is this year fully concentrating his efforts on the Tour de France, Pozzovivo gets the honour on alphabetical order by virtue of being the leader of the Ag2r La Mondiale team.
Alongside the eighteen WorldTour teams which get automatic entry, four wildcard teams – Bardiani-CSF, Gazprom-Rusvelo, Nippo-Vini Fantini and Wilier-SouthEast – will also feature at the Giro.
Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), the 2013 champion, is the favourite for the race and wears number 11, while Team Sky’s Mikel Landa, who finished on the podium last year, wears number 181 and Movistar’s Alejando Valverde gets number 121.
Valverde is riding the Giro for the first time in a bid to win a second Grand Tour title after his 2009 triumph at the Vuelta a Espana. All in all, the Spaniard has finished on the podium of a Grand Tour seven times, including a third place finish at last year’s Tour de France.
The 2016 Vuelta kicks off in Apeldoorn, Holland, on Friday (May 6) but no British riders will be on the start line for the second year running. Alex Dowsett was in contention for a spot in Movistar’s line-up but the Essex rider has been force to re-shape his season after collarbone surgery.
