With Jose Rujano ruled out due to his possible involvement with banned doctor Michele Ferrari and sprinters Romain Feillu and Barry Markus both unavailable due to injury, the Vacansoleil team has been forced to rethink their strategy for the Giro d'Italia. With a line-up mostly consisting of young riders the team hopes to be aggressive and take home a stage victory.

Last year the Vacansoleil team had a hugely successful Giro d'Italia with a victory in the queen stage and overall 3rd place for Thomas De Gendt. Despite the Belgian focusing on the Tour de France this year the team had hoped to once again be a protagonist in the mountains and in the GC due to the presence of its new signing Jose Rujano.

With Rujano ruled out of the race as a precautionary measure due to his possible involvement with banned doctor Michele Ferrari the team have put its GC hopes to rest and since the team's main sprinters Romain Feillu and Barry Markus have both been forced to cancel their participations due to injuries the team also has to rethink its strategy for the bunch kicks.

Instead of a line-up with clear leaders the team now travels to Italy with a number of young riders and stage hunters whose aggressive nature can hopefully lay the foundations for another victory for the Dutch team. Their most evident option is fast classics specialist Marco Marcato who was sidelined in the early part of the season due to an injury but is coming into form just in time for his home grand tour.

In the mountains the team hopes to shine through Rafael Valls who finally seems to have left his injury woes behind him and Rob Ruijgh who was the best Dutchman in the Tour de France in 2011. In the bunch kicks the team hopes to see the versatile Grega Bole and former Dutch champion Pim Ligthart mix it up - especially in the harder finishes.

The team is being completed by relentless attackers Martijn Keizer and Frederik Veuchelen and young talents Maurits Lammertink and Willem Wauters. The former is another sprint option for the team and he has delivered a number of strong results in his first full season with the team. Yesterday he survived the many climbs in the Rund um den Finanzplatz and managed to sprint to an 8th place behind a number of the world's best riders.

Starting on Saturday at 14.15 you can follow all the Giro stages on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

Vacansoleil-DCM for the Giro d'Italia
Grega Bole, Martijn Keizer, Maurits Lammertink, Pim Ligthart, Marco Marcato, Rob Ruijgh, Willem Wauters, Rafael Valls and Frederik Veuchelen