Sean Yates: Tour de France Contenders Will Miss Giro d'Italia

Team Sky sports director Sean Yates has said that top Tour de France favourites will miss out on the 2011 Giro d’Italia due to the toughness of both.

Yates didn’t name any riders from his squad that might miss the event next May but it is unlikely that Bradley Wiggins will be on the line in Turin. This year Wiggins used the Giro as a warm up for the French event even winning the opening prologue. Race director Angelo Zomegnan announced that Alberto Contador would race in Italy in 2011 last April. This is unlikely, however, after the events of this year and moving to Sunguard Saxo Bank for the new season.

Visit to Etna
RSC sport announced the Giro d’Italia route only four days after the Tour de France route was revealed to the world and both are set to be some of the toughest in years. Yates called, Vuelta a Espana winner, Vincenzo Nibali as the favourite as the Italian finished third in this year’s even behind teammate Ivan Basso. The event will start May 7th in Turin and do an entire loop of the country back up to Milan.

The talk of the town was the third visit to one of the world’s most active volcanoes Mount Etna. It will be particularly tough as the riders will have to climb the volcano not one but twice in the same stage. It was last featured in 1989 and the last serious eruption was in 2002 when 32 people were injured at a tourist complex.

Duel on the Zoncolan
After a brilliant duel on the Monte Zoncolan, fans will be happy to see it on the route again; during this year’s ascent one fan opened up a banner that said “Welcome to the Gates of Hell”. These are just two of the mountain stages that will sort out the men from the boys. Another will be the Colle delle Finestre which is 18.5 kilometres of ascent half of which is on gravel roads.

The prologue will be the team-time-trial, which was the scene of Mark Cavendish’s first pink jersey, will make an appearance for the first time in two years. He will be hoping his team allow him to go with seven chances for him to shine in the three weeks. Italian Alessandro Petacchi is also looking to put on a good performance in his home race.

It will be interesting as next season gets underway who will go where in the Grand Tours and if anyone will try for the double. It will be a hardened individual who goes for the double, but the rewards will be rich if they pull it off.