RoadCyclingUK Fantasy Giro d’Italia gives you the chance to step into the role of directeur sportif and create your cycling dream team for the first Grand Tour of the year.

The Giro is less than two weeks away and each of the 207 riders set to line-up in Naples on Saturday May 4 are making their final preparations for the 96th edition of the race – but who will make the cut in your squad? Click here to register.

Guide your team to the top spot on the podium and you’ll win a Team Carbon bike worth £1,500 (custom painted to the winner’s design), while the directeur sportif of the teams in second and third will each receive a pair of Team Carbon wheels worth £600. You can find more details about the prizes here.

Regular readers will be familiar with RoadCyclingUK Fantasy Tour de France, which is set to return for a third successive year in 2013, but all eyes will be on Italy throughout May, when Bradley Wiggins will bid to become the first Briton to win the Giro d’Italia – and you must guide your team through the gruelling climbs and frantic sprints that make up the three-week race.

How to play

Use your €20m budget to select nine riders, picking a maximum of two members from any Giro d’Italia team. Will Wiggins spearhead your team? Or is Vincenzo Nibali the man for the job? Will Mark Cavendish, who so narrowly missed out on winning the points jersey as a Team Sky rider in 2012, thrive in Omega Pharma-QuickStep colours?

You can make unlimited team changes until the start of the opening stage and, once the Giro is underway, you can make up to three changes to your team between stages and a maximum of 20 in total. Once you’ve picked your all-conquering team, invite your friends and rivals to compete in your own private league.

Points are awarded to the top 20 riders in each stage with bonus points on offer for being part of a stage-winning squad and for claiming or retaining the lead in an overall classification. The stages have been split into three categories with 50 per cent more points awarded for the most difficult and important days in the saddle.

Make sure you study the way riders score points to develop a winning strategy (you can read the full rules here) and check out the brand new infographics page to see the most popular riders, teams and transfers.

What you can win

The winner will receive a Team Carbon CT1 road bike worth approximately £1,500 with a Shimano 105 groupset and Team Carbon 40mm deep section wheels with aluminium rims. The CT1 frame and fork are made from high-grade T800 carbon fibre, with a frame weight of just 1,040g. The bike will be custom painted to the winner’s design.

Two runners-up will each receive a set of 40mm-deep, full carbon Team Carbon wheels.

See you on the start line!