French climber Pierre Rolland will lead Europcar in this year's Giro d'Italia. This was confirmed by Jean-René Bernaudeau, manager of Team Europcar.

"We decided to change Rolland's program a bit. He will race Vuelta al Pais Vasco and Giro d'Italia." Bernaudeau told ouest-france.fr on the eve of Circuit de la Sarthe.

This decision could conflict with Rolland's ambition of general classification in Tour de France. As the most established climber in Team Europcar, Rolland always sets Tour de France as his season highlight and has never finished in any other Grand Tours.

However, Europcar is right at the bottom of WorldTour ranking and under pressure to eke out some points to survive in the elite rank. This could be a factor for Rolland to ride a second Grand Tour.