Ineos Grenadiers announce Giro line-up featuring Geraint Thomas, Tao Geoghegan Hart & Filippo Ganna

Geraint Thomas, Tao Geoghegan Hart & Filippo Ganna have been named in the Ineos Grenadiers line-up for the Giro d’Italia.

The other riders included in the line-up are Thymen Arensman, Laurens de Plus, Salvatore Puccio, Pavel Sivakov and Ben Swift.

The race gets underway on May 6 in Ortona, and finishes on May 28 in Rome.

“I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into the Giro,” said Thomas.

“The last two times I’ve been there I haven’t even finished, so hopefully I can get to Rome at the very least!

“Obviously, this year has been a bit stop-start, but I’m on the right track and coming into some shape just in time – with all the boys going super-well too. We had a really good camp at Sierra Nevada and then the Tour of the Alps obviously went really well, so morale is high. Everyone’s confident and we’re just looking forward to racing now.

“For me, I just want to enjoy it. As a junior, the thought of even going to the Giro with a group of lads all trying to perform at our absolute best…I would have been super-excited, so I’m looking forward to going there, soaking it up and getting stuck in.

“It’ll be nice having Swifty on the team too – we’ve been racing together since we were like 10 or 11 on bike paths around parks. Hopefully we have the chance to enjoy it, because it’s a tough race and the end’s obviously super hard. The last week’s going to decide it, I think, so I’m looking forward to getting there, getting into the race and giving it everything with the lads.”

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal–QuickStep) and Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) arrive as the two overwhelming favourites for the maglia rosa, with the Slovenian targeting revenge after crashing out of their last Grand Tour duel at La Vuelta.

But former Tour de France champion Thomas will also hope to be in the mix, while team-mate Geoghegan Hart is also back for another stab at the race he brilliantly won in 2020.

After losing pink on the final day that year to the Brit, Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) pulled off a great redemption story with the overall victory last year. However, he will not defend his title, preferring to focus on the Tour de France due to the amount of individual time trials (three) on the menu in Italy.

Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) will also fine-tune his new sprint train ahead of his bid for the Tour de France stage record later this year.

How can I watch the Giro d’Italia on TV and live stream?

Rob Hatch, Sean Kelly, Lloyd and Blythe will be in the commentary box, with Jens Voigt and Alberto Contador doing their thing on the back of a motorbike.

Giro d’Italia 2023 route map

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