Primož Roglič has been confirmed on the start list for the Giro d'Italia, but his Jumbo-Visma team has been hit hard by Covid, with Tobias Foss and Robert Gesink joining Wilco Kelderman on the sidelines.
Roglič was always going to ride the Giro, illness and injury permitting, and is one of two favourites, alongside Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), but his team has undoubtedly been weakened with the loss of key domestiques, ahead of the start on Saturday.
Foss and Gesink left the Tour de Romandie ahead of stage 4, with Jumbo saying that “woke up with minor health problems and decided to leave the stage race with an eye on the Giro d'Italia”.
However, there was no recovery in time for the start of the Corsa Rosa, with Covid meaning both are out. On Tuesday night, the team tweeted: "Unfortunately, covid strikes again. Besides Wilco Kelderman, also Tobias Foss and Robert Gesink will be replaced in the Giro d’Italia. Jos van Emden and Rohan Dennis are their substitutes."
Kelderman was forced out of the team due to a crash at Tirreno-Adriatico in March. Gesink might be a key loss for Roglič, with the Dutchman helping the Slovenian to all three of his Vuelta a España victories.
There have been numerous Covid cases in the peloton in recent months, with Trek-Segafredo's Giulio Ciccone the highest-profile casualty.
UAE Team Emirates, Jayco AlUla and Trek-Segafredo all confirmed their squads for the Giro on Tuesday, with the three going for different targets. UAE has João Almeida, Brandon McNulty and Jay Vine as general classification options, while also picking Pascal Ackermann for sprints. Jayco AlUla is headed up by Michael Matthews, who will hope to deliver on punchy days, alongside climbers like Eddie Dunbar and Alessandro De Marchi.
Meanwhile, Trek will be led by Mads Pedersen, who is a solid bet for the points jersey, while Bauke Mollema will hope to complete his set of Grand Tour stage wins.
Mark Cavendish is set to ride his seventh Giro, with the British champion part of Astana Qazaqstan's eight-man squad for the Italian Grand Tour.
The Manxman has won a stage at every Giro he has ridden in the past - winning 16 times in total - so Astana will be hoping that he can deliver again on the biggest stage. However, the Kazakh team do not appear to be taking a leadout train for Cavendish, so he will be forced to freelance on the sprint days.
He is yet to win a race in 2023 for his new team, but there will be opportunities for the fast men at the Giro. Astana are also taking Joe Dombrowski and Gianni Moscon.
Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart are the headliners of Ineos Grenadiers' Giro team, who go in with a multi-pronged general classification attack. The two former-Grand Tour winners (the 2018 Tour de France for Thomas, the 2020 Giro for Geoghegan Hart) are joined by Pavel Sivakov and Thymen Arensman, both of whom could be top-10 contenders too.
Filippo Ganna, the two-time world time trial champion, is present for the three individual time trials on the menu.
Evenepoel, the other favourite for the Giro alongside Roglič, takes the number one dossard in the absence of all of last year's top five, riding for Soudal Quick-Step.
Supporting the Vuelta a España champion will be a few of the same riders that helped him to the red jersey last summer: Louis Vervaeke, Ilan Van Wilder and Pieter Serry. They are joined by Czech rider Jan Hirt, who finished sixth at the Giro last year.
Another big team to confirm their lineup is Bora-Hansgrohe, who will be led by Aleksandr Vlasov, who finished fifth at last year's Tour de France. He's backed by Lennard Kämna, stage winner last year, and Bob Jungels.
Bahrain-Victorious are set to be led by Damiano Caruso (second in 2021), Santiago Buitrago (stage winner last year), and Jack Haig (third at the 2021 Vuelta a España), in an intriguing team.
Eight men are allowed in each squad, with a mix of climbers, sprinters, general classification hopefuls and domestiques. Plus, with three time trials, there are rouleurs a plenty.
The other British riders who will be at the Corsa Rosa are Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost), Jake Stewart (Groupama-FDJ), Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers), Charlie Quarterman (Corratec) and Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech). There are 53 Italians on the start list at present.
Here are the confirmed and unconfirmed start lists for the 2023 Giro. Unconfirmed teams have an asterisk by them.
Giro d'Italia 2023 start list
Soudal Quick-Step
1 EVENEPOEL Remco (Bel)
2 BALLERINI Davide (Ita)
3 CATTANEO Mattia (Ita)
4 ČERNÝ Josef (Cze)
5 HIRT Jan (Cze)
6 SERRY Pieter (Bel)
7 VAN WILDER Ilan (Bel)
8 VERVAEKE Louis (Bel)
AG2R Citroën
11 VENDRAME Andrea (Ita)
12 CHEREL Mikaël (Fra)
13 BAUDIN Alex (Fra)
14 LAPEIRA Paul (Fra)
15 PARET-PEINTRE Aurélien (Fra)
16 PARET-PEINTRE Valentin (Fra)
17 PRODHOMME Nicolas (Fra)
18 WARBASSE Larry (USA)
Alpecin-Deceuninck*
21 OLDANI Stefano (Ita)
22 CONCI Nicola (Ita)
23 GROVES Kaden (Aus)
24 KRIEGER Alexander (Deu)
25 LEYSEN Senne (Bel)
26 RIESEBEEK Oscar (Ned)
27 SBARAGLI Kristian (Ita)
28 SINKELDAM Ramon (Ned)
Astana Qazaqstan
31 CAVENDISH Mark (GBr)
32 BATTISTELLA Samuele (Ita)
33 DOMBROWSKI Joe (USA)
34 MOSCON Gianni (Ita)
35 PRONSKIY Vadim (Kaz)
36 SÁNCHEZ Luis León (Esp)
37 SCARONI Christian (Ita)
38 VELASCO Simone (Ita)
Bahrain-Victorious
41 CARUSO Damiano (Ita)
42 BUITRAGO Santiago (Col)
43 HAIG Jack (Aus)
44 MÄDER Gino (Sui)
45 PASQUALON Andrea (Ita)
46 MILAN Jonathan (Ita)
47 SÜTTERLIN Jasha (Deu)
48 ZAMBANINI Edoardo (Ita)
Bora-Hansgrohe
51 VLASOV Aleksandr (Rus)
52 ALEOTTI Giovanni (Ita)
53 BENEDETTI Cesare (Pol)
54 DENZ Nico (Deu)
55 JUNGELS Bob (Lux)
56 KÄMNA Lennard (Deu)
57 KONRAD Patrick (Aut)
58 PALZER Anton (Deu)
Cofidis *
61 CONSONNI Simone (Ita)
62 BIDARD François (Fra)
63 CIMOLAI Davide (Ita)
64 LAFAY Victor (Fra)
65 LASTRA Jonathan (Esp)
66 PÉRICHON Pierre-Luc (Fra)
67 ROCHAS Rémy (Fra)
68 TOUMIRE Hugo (Fra)
EF Education-EasyPost *
BETTIOL Alberto (Ita)
CEPEDA Jefferson (Ecu)
URÁN Rigoberto (Col)
CAICEDO Jonathan (Ecu)
CARTHY Hugh (GBr)
DE BOD Stefan (RSA)
EIKING Odd Christian (Nor)
HEALY Ben (Irl)
KUDUS Merhawi (Eri)
CORT Magnus (Den)
EOLO-Kometa
81 ALBANESE Vincenzo (Ita)
82 BAIS Davide (Ita)
83 BAIS Mattia (Ita)
84 FETTER Erik (Hun)
85 FORTUNATO Lorenzo (Ita)
86 GAVAZZI Francesco (Ita)
87 MAESTRI Mirco (Ita)
88 SEVILLA Diego Pablo (Esp)
Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè
91 FIORELLI Filippo (Ita)
92 COVILI Luca (Ita)
93 GABBURO Davide (Ita)
94 MAGLI Filippo (Ita)
95 MARCELLUSI Martin (Ita)
96 MULUBRHAN Henok (Eri)
97 TONELLI Alessandro (Ita)
98 ZOCCARATO Samuele (Ita)
Groupama-FDJ
101 PINOT Thibaut (Fra)
102 ARMIRAIL Bruno (Fra)
103 KÜNG Stefan (Sui)
104 LIENHARD Fabian (Sui)
105 MOLARD Rudy (Fra)
106 STEWART Jake (GBr)
107 THOMPSON Reuben (NZl)
109 VAN DEN BERG Lars (Ned)
Ineos Grenadiers
111 GEOGHEGAN HART Tao (GBr)
112 ARENSMAN Thymen (Ned)
113 DE PLUS Laurens (Bel)
114 GANNA Filippo (Ita)
115 PUCCIO Salvatore (Ita)
116 SIVAKOV Pavel (Fra)
117 SWIFT Ben (GBr)
118 THOMAS Geraint (GBr)
Intermarché-Circus-Wanty *
121 ROTA Lorenzo (Ita)
122 BYSTRØM Sven Erik (Nor)
123 BONIFAZIO Niccolò (Ita)
124 HUYS Laurens (Bel)
125 MARIT Arne (Bel)
126 PETILLI Simone (Ita)
127 REX Laurenz (Bel)
128 TAARAMÄE Rein (Est)
Israel-Premier Tech
131 POZZOVIVO Domenico (Ita)
132 BERWICK Sebastian (Aus)
133 CLARKE Simon (Aus)
134 FRIGO Marco (Ita)
135 GEE Derek (Can)
136 RICCITELLO Matthew (USA)
137 WILLIAMS Stephen (GBr)
138 WÜRTZ SCHMIDT Mads (Den)
Jumbo-Visma
141 ROGLIČ Primož (Slo)
142 AFFINI Edoardo (Ita)
143 BOUWMAN Koen (Ned)
144 DENNIS Rohan (Aus
145 VAN EMDEN Jos (Ned)
146 HESSMANN Michel (Deu)
147 KUSS Sepp (USA)
148 TRATNIK Jan (Slo)
Movistar
151 GAVIRIA Fernando (Col)
152 BARTA Will (USA)
153 KANTER Max (Deu)
154 ROJAS José Joaquín (Esp)
155 RUBIO Einer Augusto (Col)
156 RODRÍGUEZ Óscar (Esp)
157 TORRES Albert (Esp)
158 VERONA Carlos (Esp)
Arkéa Samsic
161 BARGUIL Warren (Fra)
162 BOUET Maxime (Fra)
163 DEKKER David (Ned)
164 GUERNALEC Thibault (Fra)
165 RIES Michel (Lux)
166 RIOU Alan (Fra)
167 RUSSO Clément (Fra)
168 VERRE Alessandro (Ita)
Corratec *
171 CONTI Valerio (Ita)
172 DALLA VALLE Nicolas (Ita)
173 GANDIN Stefano (Ita)
174 IACCHI Alessandro (Ita)
175 KONYCHEV Alexander (Ita)
176 QUARTERMAN Charlie (GBr)
177 TIVANI German Nicolás (Arg)
178 VIVIANI Attilio (Ita)
Team DSM
181 LEKNESSUND Andreas (Nor)
182 HVIDEBERG Jonas Iversby (Nor)
183 MÄRKL Niklas (Deu)
184 MAYRHOFER Marius (Deu)
185 STORK Florian (Deu)
186 TUSVELD Martijn (Ned)
187 DAINESE Alberto (Ita)
188 VANHOUCKE Harm (Bel)
Jayco-AlUla
191 MATTHEWS Michael (Aus)
192 DE MARCHI Alessandro (Ita)
193 DUNBAR Eddie (Irl)
194 HEPBURN Michael (Aus)
195 PÖSTLBERGER Lukas (Aut)
196 SCOTSON Callum (Aus)
197 STEWART Campbell (NZl)
198 ZANA Filippo (Ita)
Trek-Segafredo
201 GHEBREIGZABHIER Amanuel (Eri)
202 HOOLE Daan (Ned)
203 KIRSCH Alex (Lux)
204 MOLLEMA Bauke (Ned)
205 PEDERSEN Mads (Den)
206 SKUJIŅŠ Toms (Lat)
207 TESFATSION Natnael (Eri)
208 VERGAERDE Otto (Bel)
UAE Team Emirates
211 ALMEIDA João (Por)
212 ACKERMANN Pascal (Deu)
213 COVI Alessandro (Ita)
214 FORMOLO Davide (Ita)
215 GIBBONS Ryan (RSA)
216 MCNULTY Brandon (USA)
217 ULISSI Diego (Ita)
218 VINE Jay (Aus)
