Diego Rosa and Fabio Aru (first and third last year respectively), two of the main favourites of the Milano-Torino NamedSport, lead the entry list of the RCS Sport/La Gazzetta dello Sport classic race. The two Italians will pin race numbers 1 and 2 to their jerseys on Wednesday 28 September.

The list of contenders also features big name riders with Grand Tour stage victories and many prestigious classic races in their palmares, including: Purito Rodriguez, Rafal Majka (second last year), Wout Poels (fifth in 2015), Diego Ulissi (winner in 2013), Mikel Landa, the Colombians Darwin Atapuma and Rigoberto Uran, Dani Moreno, the Frenchmen Romain Bardet and Warren Barguil in addition to the many Italian riders such as Giovanni Visconti, Damiano Cunego, Michele Scarponi, Domenico Pozzovivo, Davide Formolo and Adriano Malori.

THE COURSE
The route starts in Sesto Ulteriano and rolls across the Po Valley along flat roads, all the way through the Vigevano plains and the Lomellina region, up to Casale Monferrato, where the race profile becomes wavier, with gentle climbs and descents that lead to the final circuit.

The route rolls past San Mauro Torinese and all along the Po River in Corso Casale, where it takes in the first climb to the Basilica of Superga. The road then drops down into Rivodora on a technical descent (diverting 600 metres before the finish) that leads back to San Mauro. Here the route goes up again, all the way to the finish, with gradients exceeding 10%. The fixed feed zone is located in Morano sul Po (km 92-95).

Final kilometres
The last 5 km (to be covered twice, with the exception of the final 600 metres) start in Torino, in Corso Casale, at the foot of the climb that leads to the Basilica of Superga. The average rise is 9.1%, with a mid-climb peak of 14% and long stretches with a 10% gradient. There is a left-hand U-turn 600m before the finish that leads to an 8.2% climb, with one last bend 50 metres before the finish, on 7m wide asphalt road.

PROVISIONAL START LIST

ASTANA PRO TEAM
ROSA Diego
ARU Fabio
CATALDO Dario
FUGLSANG Jakob
KANGERT Tanel
LOPEZ MORENO Miguel Angel
SCARPONI Michele
TIRALONGO Paolo

AG2R LA MONDIALE
BARDET Romain
BONNAFOND Guillaume
CHEREL Mikael
DUPONT Hubert
LATOUR Pierre-Roger
MONTAGUTI Matteo
POZZOVIVO Domenico
VUILLERMOZ Alexis

ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI - SIDERMEC
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley
FRAPPORTI Marco
GAVAZZI Francesco
NARDIN Alberto
PELLIZOTTI Franco
TALIANI Alessio
TORRES AGUDELO Rodolfo A.
TVETCOV Serghei

BARDIANI CSF
ANDREETTA Simone
BARBIN Enrico
BONGIORNO Francesco Manuel
CHIRICO Luca
ROTA Lorenzo
TONELLI Alessandro
VELASCO Simone
ZARDINI Edoardo

BMC RACING TEAM
ATAPUMA HURTADO Darwin
BURGHARDT Marcus
HERMANS Ben
MOINARD Amael
SANCHEZ GONZALEZ Samuel
SENNI Manuel
TEUNS Dylan
VELITS Peter

CAJA RURAL - SEGUROS RGA
ARROYO DURAN David
GONCALVES Domingos Andre
GONCALVES José
MOLINA Antonio
PARDILLA BELLON Sergio
PRADES REVERTE Eduard
SAEZ Hector
VILELA Ricardo

CANNONDALE-DRAPAC PRO C.T.
BRESCHEL Matti
CARDOSO Andre Fernando S.M.
DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd
FORMOLO Davide
KOREN Kristjan
SKUJINS Toms
URAN URAN Rigoberto
VILLELLA Davide

CCC SPRANDI POLKOWICE
GROSSCHARTNER Felix
HONKISZ Adrian
HIRT Jan
OWSIAN Lukasz
PATERSKI Maciej
PONZI Simone
REBELLIN Davide
SAMOILAU Branislau

GAZPROM - RUSVELO
FIRSANOV Sergey
ARSLANOV Ildar
EVTUSHENKO Alexander
FOLIFOROV Alexander
SEROV Alexander
SOLOMENNIKOV Andrey
SVESHNIKOV Kirill
RYBALKIN Aleksey

LAMPRE - MERIDA
CATTANEO Mattia
DURASEK Kristijan
FARIA DA COSTA Rui Alberto
MORI Manuele
NIEMIEC Przemyslaw
PETILLI Simone
POLANC Jan
ULISSI Diego

MOVISTAR TEAM
VISCONTI Giovanni
ANACONA GOMEZ Winner
BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos A.
CARAPAZ Richard
MALORI Adriano
MORENO FERNANDEZ Daniel
MORENO BAZAN Javier
QUINTANA ROJAS Dayer Uberney

NIPPO - VINI FANTINI
CUNEGO Damiano
BERLATO Giacomo
BISOLTI Alessandro
BOLE Grega
DE NEGRI Pier Paolo
FILOSI Iuri
GROSU Eduard Michael
YAMAMOTO Genki

TEAM GIANT - ALPECIN
BARGUIL Warren
FRÖHLINGER Johannes
GESCHKE Simon
LUDVIGSSON Fredrik
LUDVIGSSON Tobias
OOMEN Sam
SKJOESTAD LUNKE Sindre
TUSVELD Martijn

TEAM KATUSHA
RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquin
KOZONTCHUK Dmitry
LOSADA ALGUACIL Alberto
MACHADO Tiago
MAMYKIN Matvey
SILIN Egor
TAARAMAE Rein
VICIOSO ARCOS Angel

TEAM SKY
BOSWELL Ian
KENNAUGH Peter
KONIG Leopold
LANDA MEANA Mikel
MOSCON Gianni
NIEVE ITURALDE Mikel
POELS Wouter
SWIFT Ben

TINKOFF
BALLERINI Davide
BRUTT Pavel
FORTUNATO Lorenzo
HANSEN Jesper
KREUZIGER Roman
MAJKA Rafal
MOREIRA PAULINHO Sergio M.
POLJANSKI Pawel

TREK - SEGAFREDO
ALAFACI Eugenio
BEPPU Fumiyuki
DIDIER Laurent
HESJEDAL Ryder
RAST Grégory
SCHLECK Frank
ZOIDL Riccardo
ZUBELDIA AGIRRE Haimar

WILIER TRIESTINA - SOUTHEAST
AMEZQUETA MORENO Julen
BUSATO Matteo
CANAVERAL VARGAS Johan Sebas
FEDI Andrea
GODOY Yonder
MARTINEZ Daniel
PEREZ Xuban
RODRIGUEZ MARTIN Cristian