A sudden yet somewhat expected Richie Porte’s withdrawal from the Giro d’Italia naturally provoked a wave of speculations about his replacement in the role of Team Sky’s leader for the Italian grand tour. Unsurprisingly, the Gazzetta dello Sport occurred to be the most active in searching for another big name to line up at the start of the event, particularly finding Bradley Wiggins five irresistible reasons to join the fun, but such suggestions were quickly denied by the former Tour de France champion and the British squad.

The Gazzetta dello Sport, owned by the company responsible for running the Giro d’Italia, obviously supports interest of its organizers to acquire more big names to participate in the Italian grand tour, and thus came up with five reasons for Bradley Wiggins to make amends for his last year’s unimpressive performance.

In the article recently published in the Italian daily newspaper it was suggested that the Briton wouldn’t have much chances to compete with the likes of Nairo Quintana (Movistar) or Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) for the final glory in the event, however, he could work for fining his disposition ahead of the Tour de France and target time trial stages.

It has been also suggested that the race director, Mauro Vegni, personally works on a deal that would persuade Team Sky and Wiggins to line-up at the Giro d’Italia Grande Partenza 30 days from now, however, the Team Sky management quickly expressed no intention in changing racing schedule of the former Tour de France champion as he is expected to participate in the Amgen Tour of California.

Wiggins also flatly denied that he will ride the Giro d'Italia as he lined up for the Scheldeprijs race in Belgium.

"I'm not doing the Giro," he told media, including Cyclingnews.

And quickly explained, that while he wouldn’t role out his return to the Italian grand tour in the future, he doesn’t expect it to happen this year.

"Not this year," Wiggins added.

Wiggins’ participation as Team Sky leader in last year’s edition of the Giro d’Italia was, in fact, a confirmation of his inability to handle the pressure connected with being a reigning Tour de France champion and lack of motivation which hampered his whole 2013 season. The 33-year old Briton early lost time to Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) badly suffering in the cold and rainy weather to eventually abandon the race, leaving leadership responsibilities to Colombian duo of Rigoberto Uran and Sergio Henao.

Even though Wiggins replacing Porte as a Team Sky leader for the coming Giro d’Italia 2014 edition seemed the most obvious choice, the rider himself is apparently determined to follow his initial racing programme and participate in the Tour of California, his second season’s objective after the Paris-Roubaix to be held this Sunday.

"Cycling is huge there and there is a huge void there. People in the US are keen on cycling but have been robbed a little bit with what's gone on. Then we will see where the future goes. As a Tour winner with credibility, with no skeletons in your closet, people look up to you and want to get on their bikes because of what you achieved one summer," the Guardian reported Wiggins as saying.

"That is quite rare, especially within cycling – there are not many of us Tour winners that haven't got a history, three or four, part of a very small club, and it's our responsibility to preach that to the world."