The 105th edition of the Giro d'Italia is coming to SBS - with the Italian three-week Grand Tour LIVE and FREE on SBS, with every minute of racing action LIVE on SBS On Demand.
Winner of 15 stages of the Giro d’Italia, Mark Cavendish (QuickStep Alpha Vinyl) will lead the Belgian squad in the Italian Grand Tour due to start this Friday.
Last year, the sprinting legend equalled the record number of stage wins at the Tour de France set by Eddy Merckx, but his Giro appearance appears to indicate that Fabio Jakobsen will be the fast man favoured for the Tour.
Acclaimed leadout man Michael Mørkøv is on the startlist as well for the race, with Davide Ballerini also a key part of the team that saw Cavendish claim four victories at last year’s Tour.
“We go to the Giro d’Italia with a lot of motivation,” said Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl sports director Davide Bramati. “We have a good team at the start, with Mark as our man for the flat. He has won a lot of stages at the Giro, and he can rely on many strong riders to support and guide him in the hectic bunch sprints.”
Teams are beginning to confirm their squads for the 2022 Giro, with Cavendish’s main competition for sprint victories expected to come from Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ), Biniam Girmay (Intermarché - Wanty - Gobert Matériaux), Giacomo Nizzolo (Israel-Premier Tech), Cees Bol (Team DSM), Magnus Cort (EF Education-Easy Post) and Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates).
“For the other stages, we’ll just take it one day at a time,” said Bramati, “fight for every opportunity and see what we can do. We know that it won’t be an easy three weeks, it never is, but we will try to do our best, because it’s in our nature.”
Mauri Vansevenant, James Knox, Pieter Serry and Bert van Leberghe make up the rest of the squad with Vansevenant in particular an exciting young talent who should be given some opportunities for stage wins over the course of the Giro.
