Fabio Aru had been expected to perhaps ride the Tour de France after targeting the Giro d’Italia but a comment from Astana team manager Alexander Vinokourov has indicated that the young Italian will instead ride the Vuelta a España as his second Grand Tour of the 2015 season. It seems Vincenzo Nibali will be Astana sole team leader for the Tour de France as he targets a second consecutive yellow jersey. Nibali will have support from Michele Scarponi and Jakob Fuglsang.
Vinokourov hinted that Nibali and Aru may team-up for the 2016 Tour de France.
The former rider spoke about Aru when the Astana team confirmed the 24 year-old Sardinian had extended his contract with the Kazakhstani team until the end of 2017.
"Fabio is a young and ambitious champion with three exciting Grand Tour stage victories. We are happy and proud to see him in our team colors at the start of the 2015 Giro. We can't wait to see what will happen in the next three weeks in Italy and the next three years around the world," Vinokourov said in a team statement.
"Fabio is 24 years old and has many years ahead of him in professional cycling - at every race he develops, he gains experience and as he races with our veterans he learns directly from champions what it means to be a champion - we will see great performances at the Giro and Vuelta this year, and, why not, maybe at Vincenzo Nibali's side in at the Tour de France in 2016."
Football inspires Savio for his Androni Giocattoli team strategy
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Androni Giocattoli team manager Gianni Savio has told Cyclingnews his team strategy will reflect a soccer team formation with his nine riders following a 6-1-2 strategy.
“We’ve got six riders who will try to get in the breaks and animate the race, Franco Pellizotti is our play maker and road captain and then hopefully sprinters Oscar Gatto and Davide Appollonio will finish things off and put the ball in the back of the net,” Savio told Cyclingnews.
“Things might change on the hilly stages but we’ve can also vary our model depending on if Pellizotti is well placed overall.”
Savio will one of several directeur sportif and team managers who will share their race analysis and comments on each stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia. Watch out for the comment on the stage report page.
Il giovane e il vecchio at the Giro d’Italia
Gazzetta dello Sport gave their Giro d’Italia coverage a special theme on Thursday, focusing on the ‘il giovane e il vecchio’ – ‘the young and the old’ of the 2015 Corsa Rosa.
The Italian sports newspaper revealed that Alessandro Petacchi (Southeast) is the oldest rider in the race peloton at 41, with Rick Zabel (BMC), the son of Erik Zabel, the youngest rider at just 21 and 176 days. Petacchi often sprinted against Erik and then worked as his lead out man and teammate at the Milram team for three years.
Gazzetta revealed that Davide Formolo (Cannondale-Garmin) is the youngest Italian rider in this year’s Giro d’Italia. He is just 22.
Follow the Giro with the Cyclingnews Tour Tracker App
You can keep up to date with all the action from the 2015 Giro d’Italia with the Cyclingnews Tour Tracker app. On the app you’ll find previews of each stage, interactive maps and a full start list with information on each of the riders all on your mobile or tablet.
Update to Pro and you’ll get live text commentary from Cyclingnews.com, live timings, full results and standings, brilliant photography and more.
You can download it from the iTunes App store or Google Play and If you’ve already got it then open up the app and you’ll find all the from the Giro.
