Sir Bradley Wiggins will continue Giro d’Italia preparation by leading Team Sky at the Giro del Trentino on April 16-19.
The Tour de France champion has been named in Team Sky’s eight-man squad for the four-day, five-stage race.
Dario Cataldo, Joe Dombrowski, Peter Kennaugh, Christian Knees, Danny Pate, Kanstantsin Siutsou and Xabier Zandio will support the 32-year-old, who will this year target victory at the Giro d’Italia before supporting Chris Froome at the Tour de France.
The race, which starts with two days in Austria before heading to Italy, will provide a key test of form ahead of the Giro d’Italia, with Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) and Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) also set to ride.
Wiggins previously suggested he may ride Liege-Bastogne-Liege but Froome will lead Team Sky in La Doyenne.
Liege-Bastogne-Liege is the final race in a trilogy of Ardennes Classics which starts with the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday (April 14). Britons Jonathan Tiernan-Locke and neo-pro Josh Edmondson are joined by Edvald Boasson Hagen, Mathew Hayman, Sergio Henao, Vasil Kiryienka, Salvatore Puccio and Rigoberto Uran for the 251km race.
The team will then move on to La Fleche Wallonne on Wednesday (April 17), where Richie Porte, who finished second overall in the Tour of the Basque Country, will ride alongside Edmondson, Henao, Kiryienka, Puccio, Tiernan-Locke and Uran.
Froome, who has recorded overall victories at the Tour of Oman and Criterium International in 2013, will then lead Team Sky’s charge at Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday April 21, joined by David Lopez, Danny Pate, Henao, Kiryienka, Porte, Tiernan-Locke and Uran.
Froome will then turn his attention back to stage racing at the Tour of Romandie on April 23-28, with Edmondson, Kennaugh, Kiryienka, Lopez, Porte, Gabriel Rasch and Chris Sutton also set to ride the six-stage race, won by Wiggins en-route to his Tour de France triumph in 2012.
You can see Team Sky’s full line-ups for April here.
