Fabio Aru burst onto the scene at last year’s Giro, stepping out of the shadows at Astana – still aged just 23 at the time – to win on the Montecampione and finish third overall.

Having followed that with two stage wins and fifth overall at the Vuelta a Espana, it is little surprise to see Aru leading Astana from the off at this year’s Giro.

But his season so far has been unspectacular at best – featuring at just two stage races, Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya.

He fell ill ahead of the Giro del Trentino, missing his final pre-Giro tune-up, and so will enter the race with few competitive miles in his legs.

Nevertheless, Aru proved he can be a contender last season and if he can quickly find his form then he will certainly be at the sharp end. If not, Mikel Landa stepped up in Aru’s absence in Trentino, following up on his Tour of the Basque Country stage win to finish second overall.

With Landa, Dario Cataldo, Luis Leon Sanchez and Tanel Kangert in Astana’s nine-rider squad, Aru has plenty of strong support even if his Giro challenge is less of a priority than Vincenzo Nibali’s forthcoming Tour de France defence.

Astana squad: ARU, Dario Cataldo, Tanel Kangert, Mikel Landa, Davide Malacarne, Diego Rosa, Luis Leon Sanchez, Paolo Tiralongo, Andrey Zeits.

Form guide

Best Giro d’Italia finish: Third (2014)
Season highlights: Volta a Catalunya – sixth
UCI WorldTour ranking: 46th