The Giro d'Italia was once known as a predominantly affair but a clear strategy to internationalize the race has paid off. For the third year in a row, two of the biggest favourites for the Italian grand tour are international stars as Mikel Landa and Alejandro Valverde prepare themselves for a great battle against local hero Vincenzo Nibali. The start list may not be quite as star-studded as it was two years ago but with a great mix of some of the most exciting stage race talents ready to take on the three stars, the scene is set for three weeks of great racing in Italy. CyclingQuotes.com takes a thorough look at this year's favourites and outsiders and finds out all about their strengths and weaknesses.

 

When Michele Acquarone took over the reins from Angelo Zomegnan as race director of the Giro d'Italia, he had a firm objective. He wanted to internationalize what was by many seen as a mostly Italian race in an attempt to challenge the position of the Tour de France as the world's leading bike race and the first premise for success in that regard was the attraction of more international stars to the race's line-up.

 

The effort has clearly paid off as a more balanced route design with shorter transfers, no excessive climbing and more time trialing has convinced several international stars to make the Giro a big  target of the season. In the last few years, the race has been the big objective for riders like Bradley Wiggins, Nairo Quintana, Joaquim Rodriguez, Alberto Contador and Richie Porte and this year it is the first big objective for Mikel Landa and Alejandro Valverde.

 

At the same time, the Italian fans will be celebrating the welcome return of Vincenzo Nibali who goes into the race with the firm ambition of returning to the top step after his 2013 victory. He will be joined by Domenico Pozzovivo and youngster Davide Formolo in carrying the Italian flag while the likes of Rigoberto Uran, Ilnur Zakarin, Esteban Chaves, Rafal Majka, Steven Kruijswijk, Ryder Hesjedal, Jean-Christophe Peraud and Tom Dumoulin add more international flavor. The line-up may not be quite as star-studded as it was in the memorable 2014 edition but the organizers have nothing to be ashamed of as they invite the cycling world to one of the most beautiful cycling festivals of the year.

 

CyclingQuotes.com has taken an in-depth look at the race's favourites, assigning 5 stars to the race's biggest favourite, 4 to his two biggest rivals, 3 to three other potential winners, 2 to four of the podium contenders and 1 to five of the race's minor outsiders. In this article, we take a look at the 2-star riders that should all be solid podium candidates.

 

Rigoberto Uran (**)

After a disappointing 2015 season, Cannondale were looking for a change of leadership for 2016 season. Long-time members Daniel Martin and Ryder Hesjedal were looking for new challenges and that forced manager to look for new grand tour leaders.

 

One of the riders who caught his attention was Rigoberto Uran. The Colombian made a breakthrough as a GC rider in the grand tours on the Italian roads at the Giro in 2013. Having gone into the race as one of two key domestiques for Bradley Wiggins, he took over the reins when the Brit fell ill and left the race prematurely. At that point, he had already completed an excellent display of Sky tactics by winning the first hard mountain stage of the race and found himself in solid podium contention.

 

With a 7th place in the 2012 Giro d’Italia being his best previous grand tour result, it still remained to be seen whether the talented Colombian could maintain such a high level throughout the three-week race but Uran proved his capabilities as a grand tour contender by finishing the race in second. He was never even close to challenging overall winner Vincenzo Nibali but the result was enough for several teams to approach him and in the end he signed a contract with the Etixx-QuickStep team.

 

Originally, Uran left Sky as he wanted a chance to ride as a leader in the Tour de France. However, the 2014 Tour de France started in England and the team decided to build a roster that was entirely devoted to Mark Cavendish. That left no room for Uran who was again left to do the Giro where he had to confirm his grand tour potential after a disappointing performance at the 2013 Vuelta.

 

With Nairo Quintana and Joaquim Rodriguez both on the start line, Uran went into the race as an outsider but he managed to clearly surpass expectations. With an outstanding time trial, he took a firm grip on the maglia rosa. As Rodriguez had crashed out of the race and Quintana had fallen ill, he found himself with a fantastic chance to win the race and he is probably still left wondering what might have happened if he hadn’t been the big loser in the Stelvio controversy that cost him the race lead.

 

With two consecutive second places, Uran was hoping to finally get the elusive Giro win in 2015 and with a long time trial set to be a key stage, he went into the race as one of the big favourites. However, he fell ill in the first week and dropped out of GC contention and even though he bounced back by almost winning a stage in the final week, the race was a huge disappointment. Later he travelled to the Tour to maybe go for the GC in the biggest race but he was never really a contender in the French mountains.

 

At that point, it was already clear that Uran and Etixx-QuickStep were going separate ways. The Belgian team was set to focus less on grand tours and Uran was looking for more support in the mountains. He found what he was looking for at Cannondale where Jonathan Vaughters’ was ready to build a team around the Colombian for the Giro. In fact, Vaughters made the Italian race of their biggest targets for the entire year.

 

That puts Uran under a considerable amount of pressure. The start to the season has been disastrous for Cannondale and they are looking for redemption on Italian roads. Uran is set to carry the flags and he has the team completely at his disposal. With climbers like Joe Dombrowski and Davide Formolo at his side, the Americans go into the race as one of the strongest blocks for the mountain stages.

 

However, Uran goes into the race on the back of a poor start to the year. Usually very consistent in the one-week races in the spring, Uran has never really been a contender. He was off the pace in Algarve and Catalonia and even though he was 10th in the latter event, he didn’t leave the same strong impression as he did 12 months ago.

 

On the other hand, Uran has had a different preparation this year. He has been training hard with his teammates throughout April and he now seems to be back on track. In the Tour de Romandie, he was climbing really well and actually he did better than usual in his final build-up race where he has traditionally not been at his best. This indicates that he may have timed his condition better than usual.

 

However, the race confirmed one of the big concerns that will make it very hard for Uran to win the Giro.  Uran emerged on the European scene at a very young age when he took a hugely surprising stage win in the Tour de Suisse as a 19-year-old Unibet rider. Since then he learned his trade at the Movistar team and was known as a pure climber. The time trials were always about limiting the losses and that didn’t change when he joined Sky in 2010.

 

However, his move to Etixx-QuickStep made a major difference. Nothing suggested that Uran would be a time trial specialist when he lined up for the 2014 Tour de Romandie but that race changed his status. With a remarkable performance, he finished fourth in the final time trial on a day when he even matched his teammate Tony Martin in the final, completely flat part.

 

Uran confirmed that it was no coincidence when he took a dominant victory in the long time trial in the Giro and later he proved that the results were no fluke when he finished second in the Vuelta time trial behind teammate Martin. The Colombian was suddenly a serious contender for the stage win in almost every time trial he did.

 

Hence, it is a bit of a mystery what has happened to his TT skills. He didn’t do a single good time trial in 2015 and even though he was never far off the pace, there was a huge difference between his 2014 and 2015 performances. This year things have only become worse. He has been time trialling terribly throughout the year. In the early races, he was not at 100% of his form but it is definitely a concern that he did worse than all his GC rivals in the TTs in Romandie where he was clearly riding very well.

 

If he has really lost the edge in the time trials, it will be very hard for Uran to win the Giro. Even though he is a solid climber, he has never been able to match the best. The likes of Vincenzo Nibali and Mikel Landa are one step above Uran and to get back into a winning position like he had in 2014, he needs to gain time in the long time trial. As things stand now, he is likely to lose time to everybody but Landa even though it’s a course that suits him down to the ground.

 

Furthermore, there is the matter of consistency. Even though two consecutive second places can’t be described as anything else than consistent, his performances in the mountains have been very irregular. One day Uran has been flying and the next day he has been in survival mode. He is very good at limiting his losses and never loses a huge amount of time but to win a grand tour, he needs to be able to change that tendency completely.

 

Uran can console himself with the fact that he seems to be climbing better than ever before but in a race where time trialling plays such a huge role, he cannot allow himself to show just the slightest signs of weakness in the individual discipline. He is still one of the most consistent grand tour riders in the world and he is clearly on form so if he can avoid health issues, he will definitely be a podium contender. However, winning the race is a completely different matter and we doubt that Uran will ever come out on top in a three-week race.

 

Steven Kruijswijk (**)

The Netherlands may be one of the flattest countries in Europe but for some reason they have a fantastic ability to produce grand tour contenders. In recent years, the Rabobank Development has produced riders like Robert Gesink, Bauke Mollema, Steven Kruijswijk, Wilco Kelderman and Tom Dumoulin who have all finished in the top 10 at grand tours in recent years.

 

Gesink was the first to establish himself as a genuine candidate for the top positions in the three-week races and Bauke Mollema quickly followed suit. While those two riders attracted all the attention, Kruijswijk calmly emerged with a steady progression. After a great 2009 season, he joined the Rabobank pro team in 2010 where he showed his potential by taking 8th in the Vuelta a Burgos. That allowed him to get the chance to lead his team at a grand tour already in his first attempt and he immediately showed his potential by riding to 8th in the 2011 Giro d’Italia whose brutal course made it one of the hardest in recent history. More than the result, it was his ability to improve throughout the race and achieve his best results in the final week that marked him out as a future grand tour contender and when he won a big mountain stage and finished on the podium just a few weeks later at the Tour de Suisse, it was evident that the next big Dutch stage racer was born.

 

However, nothing has gone to plan since that great 2011 season. Bad luck took him out of contention at his Tour de France debut in 2012 and since then he failed to back up his maiden Giro performance. He was a modest 23rd in 2013. Later in the year he found out that a narrowing of his femoral artery made it impossible to get the maximum power on the bike. Hence, he skipped the Vuelta and decided to undergo surgery.

 

2014 was all about proving that he still had the potential but when he crashed out of the Giro, he faced another setback. Instead, the Tour de France came as the confirmation that he was back on track as he finished 15th overall despite not targeting the GC and riding in support of Mollema and Laurens Ten Dam. He went on to take his first ever stage race win at the Arctic Race of Norway, proving that he was back on track.

 

The final confirmation came at last year’s Giro. After losing time due to attentiveness when Astana split the field in stage 4, he seemed to be out of the battle for the GC. Instead, he set his sights on a stage win and after having been on the attack in several stages and narrowly missed out on a stage win in stages 8 and 9, he slowly rode himself back into GC contention. An excellent time trial set him up for a great final week where he climbed with the best and was the only rider who could match Mikel Landa and Alberto Contador on Mortirolo. At the same time, he fought hard for the mountains jersey which probably cost him the strength to finish better than seventh in the end. However, if it hadn’t been for the time loss in stage 4, he would have been very close to the podium.

 

This year Kruijswijk is in a position to repeat that great ride. Just like last year he has had a slow start to the season but that’s no big concern. Last year the formula was a recipe for success and when he returned to competition following a long break from competition at the Tour de Yorkshire, he proved that he is ready. He finished 5th overall in a race that didn’t suit him at all and he even left a much better impression than he did 12 months earlier.

 

Due to his injury, Kruijswijk’s progress has been set back and so he has flown under the radar. That is also due to his low-key performances throughout the rest of the year. He will probably never be a great rider for one-week stage races but he has proved that he recovers better than most. This makes him excellent suited to the three-week races and especially to this year’s Giro d’Italia which has the key challenges gathered at the end.

 

Kruijswijk’s assets are his climbing skills, his consistency and his ability to recover. However, he has made huge progress in the TTs too. Last year he was fifth in the long time trial to Valdobbiadene and that stage was pretty similar to this year’s rolling time trial in Chianti. Kruijswijk has not had the chance to confirm his improved TT skills but if he can repeat the performance from last year in stage 9, he could very well find himself in an excellent position before we even get to his preferred terrain in the high mountains. Everybody knows that he will just get better and better as the race goes on and everything suggests that he is even stronger than he was 12 months ago. A grand tour win may be a bit premature but Kruijswijk could make a belated confirmation of his status as maybe the biggest Dutch grand tour talent by finishing on the podium in Turin.

 

Domenico Pozzovivo (**)

Everything was set for a great Giro for Domenico Pozzovivo when the entire cycling world was hit by a massive shock. Having come down on a descent in stage 3, the tiny Italian was suddenly lying lifeless on the ground and thoughts quickly turned back to similar images of the late Wouter Weylandt in the same region just four years earlier. Luckily it turned out that the injuries were only minor and Pozzovivo would already be back in competition at the Tour de Suisse but his highly promising Giro campaign had come to an end.

 

When he finished 9th in the 2008 Giro d'Italia at just 25 years of age, lofty expectations were made for the tiny climber. Pundits started to announce him as a potential podium finisher in the grand tours but for several years it seemed that it would all come to nothing. While he continued to shine in most of the Italian races, he was a perennial disappointment in the Giro and it seemed that he couldn't handle the stress of three weeks of successive racing.

 

Things turned around in 2012 when he arrived at the Giro on the back of a dominant victory at the Giro del Trentino. It was now or never for the tiny climber if he wanted to keep his status as the grand tour leader of the Bardiani team. Finally, things came together for Pozzovivo who not only finished 8th overall but also took a magnificent win in the stage to Lago Laceno.

 

Instead of moving down the internal Bardiani hierarchy, Pozzovivo suddenly found himself with a chance to join the WorldTour. With Ag2r desperately looking for points - which Pozzovivo possessed in abundance - he was picked up by the French team to lead the line in the Giro and the Vuelta. Immediately, he proved himself fully ready for the highest level but his Giro campaign was derailed by broken ribs sustained in a crash at the Giro del Trentino, with the injury severely hampering his preparations. He even crashed in the three-week race itself but battled through the pain to take 10th overall.

 

Later in the year he proved how far he had come as a grand tour rider when he rode a very consistent Vuelta to finish 6th overall. In fact he would have made it into the top 5 if it hadn't been for a stupid lack of attention in a windy stage where he lost more than a minute to Nicolas Roche who would eventually finish 5th.

 

In 2014 he stepped up his level a further notch. In a complete turnaround, the rider who was formerly known for his inconsistency, was suddenly one of the most consistent riders on the WorldTour. Before the start of the Giro d’Italia, he lined up at 7 races and he finished in the top 10 in all of them. He didn’t choose an easy path to make that feat as the list included 3 WorldTour races and two one-day races that are not perfectly suited to his characteristics as a pure climber.

 

In the Giro, Pozzovivo confirmed his steady progress by riding to a career-best fifth and was even on track for another top 10 before he fell ill in the Tour de Suisse. He bounced back with his 9th top 10 in his national championships where he was seventh and then turned his attention to the Vuelta. At that point, he had finished in the top 10 in ever y race he had finished since the start of the year!

 

Unfortunately, we never got the chance to gauge Pozzovivo against the likes of Contador and Froome as a cat crossed the road in front of him during a training ride. He was left with a broken leg and only managed to return late in the season, albeit in a form that was far from competitive.

 

Usually it takes some time to get back on track after that kind of major injury but Pozzovivo had an amazing recovery. He was back in action already at the Tour Down Under where he finished sixth. Then he took a small break to undergo surgery related to his broken leg which cost him a week off the bike. Hence, he didn’t expect to be in contention at Tirreno-Adriatico which had one of the most impressive line-ups of the spring season. Despite finding himself up against classy competition and riding on a course that didn’t suit him, he surprised himself by finishing 8th. Since then he went on to finish third in the Volta a Catalunya and seventh in the Giro del Trentino and suddenly he has even turned himself into a winner, taking a stage victory in both events. Finally, he ended his preparations for the Giro by taking 8th in Liege-Bastogne-Liege, meaning that he again went into the Giro with an unbroken string of top 10 results in the early part of the year until it all came to an abrupt halt on the roads in Liguria.

 

With the horror images fresh on mind, it was hard to believe that Pozzovivo was already competitive in the Tour de Suisse where he rode to second behind Thiabut Pinot in the queen stage and ended the race in fifth overall. One week later he was sixth in the very hard Italian road race championships and then turned his attention to the Vuelta.

 

Unfortunately, it seems that the crash has had a bigger impact on Pozzovivo than it looked like initially. He did a much worse Vuelta a Espana than expected and could only manage 11th which was a poor showing for a rider who looked like a realistic podium contender at the Giro just a few weeks later. Many hoped that he would benefit from getting through a grand tour but that outcome never materialized as he rode poorly in the Italian autumn classics too.

 

The 2016 season has just confirmed the trend. He looked solid when he rode to 7th at the Tour Down Under but since then he has been far from his best. He may have finished 8th in the Tour of Oman but in that race he would usually have been much closer to the best. He climbed much worse than usual in Tirreno-Adriatico and the Volta a Catalunya where he failed to record a single top 10 result.

 

There were small signs of improvement in the Giro del Trentino where he finished 7th but he was not even close to being the Pozzovivo who has always been a dominant figure in the mountainous race. After two consecutive top 10 results, he could only manage 63rd in Liege-Bastogne-Liege and so he goes into the Giro with no kind of indication that he back at his former level.

 

Pozzovivo still goes into the race aiming for a top 5 finish but he is no longer talking about the podium as he did 12 months ago. In 2014 and 2015, he has gone into the race as the most consistent rider of the spring but this year he finds himself at the completely opposite end of the spectrum.

 

Things haven’t been made any easier by the design of the course. Being a pure climber, Pozzovivo has to win the race in the mountains and even though he is a much better time triallist than most think – just recall how he finished third behind Tony Martin and Fabian Cancellara on a rolling course at the 2014 Vuelta – he can expect to lose time to the best in Chianti. With just two hard summit finishes, Pozzovivo probably lacks the terrain to take back what he has lost in the race against the clock. Being a pure climber, he should do well in the mountain time trial but the unusually easy course is definitely not made for the Ag2r leader. To make things even worse, the hardest challenges come in the final week and Pozzovivo has traditionally faded a bit towards the end of the race. Finally, he is still not comfortable on the descents after his crash and with most of the mountain stages have downhill finishes, he may be unable to keep up with the better descenders even if he can match them on the climbs.

 

One year ago, it looked like it was just a matter of time before Pozzovivo would finish on a grand tour podium. Unfortunately, the 2016 Giro now plays a different role on his career path. This is the race where he needs to prove that he can get back to his former level. If he can do that, his climbing skills will allow him to be with the very best in this race but if not, it will be another disappointment for the tiny Italian.

 

Ryder Hesjedal (**)

It's rare for a rider to enter a grand tour just four years after an overall victory without barely being mentioned in the list of favourites. However, Ryder Hesjedal has had a very hard time since he became a very surprising winner of the 2012 edition of the Giro d'Italia.

 

In 2013 all seemed to be going according to plan when he lined up for his title defence. Having been one of the strongest riders in Liege-Bastogne-Liege, he was riding very well in the first week of the race, seemingly at ease on the climbs and constantly on the attack. However, things started to unravel in the long time trial and just a few days later he abandoned the race due to illness.

 

He seemed to be bouncing back when he produced a fantastic ride in the first mountain stage of the Tour de Suisse but crashed out of the race one day later. To make things even worse, he fractured a rib in the first week of the Tour de France but still managed to ride a visible and aggressive race in the mountains despite suffering from his injury. He proved that he is still a capable bike rider though when he ended his season by taking third in the GP Montreal.

 

When it comes to defending his status as a grand tour contender, 2014 was a year to forget for the lanky Canadian. He lined up in Belfast for the Giro with lots of ambitions but things went wrong already on the first day when almost half of the Garmin team crashed in the team time trial. With a significant time loss, Hesjedal was no longer a potential winner of the race but he refused to give up. He rode a consistent race to gradually take back time and even got close to a memorable stage win on the snowy day to Valmartello where he finished second behind Nairo Quintana. In the end, he finished the race in 9th overall.

 

Hesjedal had hoped to deliver a better performance in the Vuelta but in the first week he paid the price for his usual lazy positioning in the bunch when he was caught out in the crosswinds in the first week. As he also lost time in the first mountain stage, he changed his goals and started to look for stage wins while also riding in support of Dan Martin. The efforts paid off as he won stage 14 on the brutally steep La Camperona climb.

 

Despite not having been in contention for the podium in a grand tour for three years, Hesjedal still claimed that he had what it takes to the win the Giro when he rolled down the start ramp in San Lorenzo Al Mare for last year’s Giro. Very few believed him and his critics were just assured in their belief when his lazy positioning cost him time in stage 4 after Astana had split the race to pieces.

 

However, Hesjedal refused to give up and by riding aggressively, he slowly got back into GC contention. As always, he got better and better throughout the race and he had made it into the top 10 when he finished sixth in the brutal Mortirolo stage. At that point, his diesel engine was even not running at 100% yet and there was more to come from Hesjedal who finished second in the final two mountain stages to ultimately finish the race in 5th. If it hadn’t been for his stupid time loss in the first week he would even have been very close to the podium.

 

Hesjedal’s excellent performances in the final week must have done a lot to silence his critics and they proved that he still has what it takes to finish on a grand tour podium. Since then he has shown almost nothing and only his heroic ride to third in the Alpe d’Huez stage at the Tour de France showed that he is still here. However, that’s not a worrying sign at all as last year’s fifth place came on the back of several years with very few results.

 

During the off-season, Hesjedal has left the Cannondale team where he has spent almost his entire career. No one knows what kind of effect it has on his performances as he has shown nothing in the early part of the year. There’s nothing to be concerned about though as this is just the usual Hesjedal formula and there is little doubt that Hesjedal will be much better by the time we get to the Giro.

 

This year’s course actually suits Hesjedal pretty well as it is not too different from the one that allowed him to win the race in 2012. There is no doubt that the Canadian will be off the pace in the first week as he needs time for his diesel engine to get going. However, there aren’t any hard mountain stages before we get to the penultimate weekend and by that time, Hesjedal should be close to his best level. If he could design his own course, Hesjedal would probably have two weeks of sprint stages and one week of mountain stages in the end and with all the key mountain stages coming towards the end of the race, this year’s route is not that far from such a layout.

 

However, it will still be very hard for Hesjedal to win the race. He may have won the 2012 Giro d’Italia by taking the jersey in the final time trial but that was definitely not an indication of him being a TT specialist. Being up against Joaquim Rodriguez, he was always going to win that battle. Hesjedal has never been a time trial specialist and compared to the likes of Nibali, Valverde and Zakarin, he can expect to lose a considerable amount of time in the long time trial. His diesel engine is not suited to the relatively short effort of a mountain time trial either and so he needs to take back a lot of time in the mountains. Even though he is likely to be one of the strongest in the final week, he is very unlikely to be able to drop the likes of Landa and Nibali on the climbs.

 

However, Hesjedal is probably not aiming for the victory anymore and a podium spot at the age of 35 would be a huge success for the Trek leader. He was already close in 2015 and this year the course suits him even better. If his lazy positioning doesn’t cost him any stupid time in the first two weeks, he will be ready to strike in the final week. A podium spot is still a tough ask in this kind of field but history shows that you can never rule out the rider who joins Chris Horner on the list of most surprising grand tour winners in recent years.