Team Sky have announced that Richie Porte will lead Team Sky for the first Grand Tour of the year, the 2015 Giro d’Italia. Porte, who has already won Paris-Nice, Volta a Catalunya and Giro del Trentino this season, will lead the nine-man team which features Italian riders Salvatore Puccio and sprinter Elia Viviani, alongside Bernhard Eisel, Sebastián Henao, Vasil Kiryienka, Leopold König, Mikel Nieve and Kanstantsin Siutsou.
On confirming the team line-up for the Giro d’Italia Team Principal, Sir Dave Brailsford, said: ‘Team Sky has had a great start to the year and we are going into the first Grand Tour of the season with a strong team, led by Richie… Richie is entering the race in good shape and with real focus and determination. He’s made a lot of small changes across a number of areas in his preparation and training this season after the illness that affected his performance in 2014. His results this season speak for themselves with excellent wins at Paris-Nice, Volta a Catalunya and Giro del Trentino. This is one of the biggest and toughest races to win in the calendar but we go to the Giro confident about the challenge ahead.’
Porte adds: ‘The Giro d’Italia has been my main goal of the season. I’ve worked very hard through the winter and am entering the race strong, healthy and up for the challenge. The competition will be tough, and obviously anything can happen in a Grand Tour, but we’ve got a great group of riders going into the race and we are ready for it.’
The 98th edition of Giro d’Italia starts on Saturday May 9 with a TTT in San Lorenzo al Mare and concludes on Sunday May 31 in Milan.
Full details of the Giro d’Italia at gazzetta.it and on Team Sky at teamsky.com
