Philippe Gilbert will be returning to the Giro this May for the first time since 2009, when he claimed victory on the short hilltop finish in Anagni. This time around, however, his focus will be on the first week, where he will target the pink jersey of race leader early in the race.

After riding at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne at the weekend, Gilbert travelled to Italy to view stage 3 from Rapallo to Sestri Levante and stage 4 from Chiavari to La Spezia in the company of Damiano Caruso and directeur sportif Fabio Baldato.

“Those stages after the team time trial and the first flat road stage aren’t the easiest and he wants to take the pink jersey,” BMC directeur sportif Valerio Piva told Het Laatste Nieuws.

“The fact that the Monday after Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne he travelled immediately to Italy shows that he is really keen to do the Giro. Those two tough training days also fit perfectly with his schedule before Paris-Nice.”

Stage 3 travels inland from Rapallo to tackle some rugged terrain including the Colle Caprile and Barbagelata before dropping back to the finish line in Sestri Levante. There is hardly a meter of flat on the following day’s winding route to La Spezia, which features the climb of Biassa in the finale.

Gilbert will compete in Paris-Nice next week before taking on Milan-San Remo on March 22. He will skip the cobbled classics and instead ride the Tour of the Basque Country to build form ahead of Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.