Published June 10, 2020 04:14PM
UAE-Team Emirates unveiled its updated Grand Tour plans for 2020 on Wednesday, announcing which of its big names are headed where on the upcoming revised calendar.
Perhaps the biggest news from the announcement is team’s confirmation that it plans to send sprint star Fernando Gaviria not to the Tour de France, but to the Giro d’Italia instead. Gaviria won two stages in his Tour debut in 2018, but missed the race last year due to injury.
This year, the 25-year-old Colombian will lead the charge in the sprints for UAE in the Italian Grand Tour, where he counts five career stage wins. His expected presence at the Giro suggests that he will miss the major cobbled Classics, with the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix both overlapping with the Giro on the UCI’s revised calendar.
The Giro will also see the Grand Tour debut of American up-and-comer Brandon McNulty, who was initially slated to make his first three-week start at the Vuelta this season. Others expected to race the Vuelta for the UAE squad are Max Richeze, Sebastian Molano, Joe Dombrowski, Valerio Conti, and Diego Ulissi.
For the Tour de France, UAE will look to Tadej Pogacar and Fabio Aru in the GC department with climbers Davide Formolo and David De la Cruz also on board. The Tour start will mark Pogacar’s debut in the race, while Aru, a former overall winner of the Vuelta a España, has finished as highly as fifth overall at the Tour. Alexander Kristoff, a three-time Tour stage winner, will be the team’s featured sprinter.
Aru, de la Cruz, and Formolo will also head to the Vuelta a España, where sprinter Jasper Philipsen and former world champ Rui Costa are also expected to be among the lineup.