With less than three weeks to the start of the Giro d'Italia, organizers RCS Sport have released the provisional start list for the first grand tour of the season. Nairo Quintana and Joaquim Rodriguez spearhead the list of GC contenders while Marcel Kittel leads the sprint field.

Friday, May 9th is approaching fast and the expected main protagonists of the Giro d'Italia (from Belfast to Trieste – 1st June) are warming up.

The opening team time trial of the Giro will see the 22 teams, each made up of 9 riders, at the start line, with a total of 198 participants.
Among those expecting to fight for overall victory in the Giro d'Italia 2014 are the Colombian Nairo Quintana and Spanish Joaquin Rodriguez.
They will also battle from the Australian Cadel Evans, the other Colombian Rigoberto Uran and Irish cousins Nicholas Roche and Daniel Martin.

Also at the start will be the winners of previous editions of the Corsa Rosa: Michele Scarponi (who will wear the number 1 as the teammate of last year's winner), Ivan Basso, Damiano Cunego and the Canadian Ryder Hesjedal.

The sprints are likely to be contested between the in-form German Marcel Kittel, the French Nacer Bouhanni and the Australian Michael Matthews, along with Britain's Ben Swift, the American Tyler Farrar and the Italians Alessandro Petacchi, Elia Viviani, Giacomo Nizzolo, Davide Appollonio and Francesco Chicchi.

As for "stages hunters", keep an eye out for the Spanish Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez, the Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen, Frenchman Pierre Rolland, the Spanish Igor Anton, the Belgian Thomas De Gendt, and the Italians: the national champion Ivan Santaromita along with Luca Paolini, Diego Ulissi, Mauro Finetto, Filippo Pozzato, Moreno Moser, Enrico Battaglin and Domenico Pozzovivo.