Trek-Segafredo announce Tour de Suisse squad

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Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

Colombian Jarlinson Pantano is the team's GC rider at Tour de Suisse, one year after winning the final stage and finishing fourth overall in 2016. Pantano hasn't raced since the Tour de Romandie and will be hoping to better his result from the Swiss race where he was 29th overall. Fabio Felline, who is likely to target the two time trials at the race, will provide Pantano with help in the mountains in a climber light squad.

With Pantano looking to shine in the mountains, John Degenkolb is targeting the flat sprint stages where he will come up against the likes of Peter Sagan and Michael Matthews. The German fast man can count on Boy van Poppel, Gregory Rast, Kiel Reijnen, Matthias Brandle and lead out man Koen de Kort in almost full sprint train. Felline can also be counted on to assist Degenkolb in his quest for stage wins. Degenkolb will be aiming for a confidence boosting stage win ahead of the Tour de France where he is targeting a win.

"We already knew that it will be hard to come back after 9 month without racing here in the Daupiné," said Jan-Niklas Droste of the team's medical department. "A lot of top guys are here for their final preparations before the Tour, the level is according to that very high. Leo had his first two good race days here, but now it's better for him to not over pace, therefore we decided to pull out of the race. But he will progress with his preparations for the Vuelta according to plan."

"I had to try three times before the break was established. The cooperation was good and we were able to gain an advantage of six minutes," Backaert said. "Only FDJ was chasing and our DS Sébastien Demarbaix told me it was possible to go for victory. When our advantage dropped to 2:45 on the last climb I thought we were gonna be caught. But we kept on working hard and with only 2 kilometres to go I realised we were going for victory!"

Chinese Australian Continental development team Mitchelton-Scott has named its team for its debut appearance at the Giro Ciclistico d'Italia, also known as the 'Baby Giro'. The Baby Giro was last held in 2012 with American Jos Dombro beating Fabio Aru to the overall title. The 2017 edition of the race starts June 9 in Imola and concludes June 15 with a stage from Francavilla al Mare to Campo Imperatore.

"It's perfect timing to start our journey as Mitchelton-Scott so we can tackle one of our biggest goals of the season with the team focused and collectively targeting some solid results," said sports director James Victor. "Straight off the back of highly successful Australian and Oceania summer campaign we have seen these riders achieve one-day race wins, tour stage wins, team time trial victories and a Tour of Toscana podium sweep for the Australian under-23 team."

"It has been a really good start to the year for the team, with everyone showing signs of strong form. We now start racing for Mitchelton-Scott and the first race is the Baby Giro. This will be one of our biggest races of the year," said Hamilton. "We are all looking forward to the race and I think we can go there with high ambitions. The Giro has a really decisive last day with a long climb so that will be important for the GC, but the other stages also really suit our characteristics so we are eager to rip into it."