With a new sprinter having arrived at UAE Team Emirates; being designated and undisputed general classification team leader will be very important for Dan Martin at the Tour. And that means starting the race without Fabio Aru also in the line-up.
The Italian media has reported Fabio Aru’s racing schedule for the first months of the season, saying he is building towards riding the Giro in May.
Aru, a team mate of Dan Martin’s at UAE Team Emirates, has not confirmed which Grand Tour he will ride.
However, La Gazzetta dello Sport has suggested his focus is on the Giro. The newspaper has in the past accurately predicted other key decisions in his career.
With Dan Martin and Aru both serious Grand Tour contenders, decisions that either rider makes will have a bearing on the other.
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Dan Martin moved to the team last year specifically for greater support in the Tour de France. If Aru also decided to ride that race, it would complicate things for Ireland’s Martin.
That scenario is even more finely balanced for the coming season because Fernando Gaviria signed for UAE Team Emirates over the winter.
However, based on La Gazzetta dello Sport’s latest report, it appears Aru will ride the Giro. And that means Martin would be the team’s man for the general classification in the Tour.
Gaviria, especially given the salary he commands, is a certainty for the Tour. He will be expected to win stages there and so will need some lead-out men assigned to him.
That situation means some of the team’s support riders during the Tour de France in July will be mopped up by Gaviria.
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Because of that, it is crucial Dan Martin is the sole general classification rider in the team’s Tour line-up.
La Gazzetta dello Sport has reported that Aru will open his season at Challenge Mallorca later this month.
Next month, the report says, he will take on Volta ao Algarve. And that will be followed in March by Volta a Catalunya before a training block towards the Giro.
"If we look at the technical characteristics of the Tour de France it’s more suited to me than the Giro,” Aru said.
“There are three time trial stages (in the Giro) which aren’t my speciality. But I’ve never hidden that my heart says Giro. We’ll see."
Despite not making any firm comments on the record about which Grand Tour he will ride, the newspaper still states Aru is aiming for the Giro.
It is a race where he finished 3rd and 2nd overall in 2014 and 2015 respectively. He has also won three stages at the Giro, two at the Vuelta and one at the Tour.
Giro important goal for team
And while Aru’s team has a Middle Eastern sponsor, it is effectively an Italian team, meaning the Giro will always be a major aim for it.
Aru rode the Giro last year, enduring terrible form and abandoning the race as it neared the finish in Rome.
The former Italian national champion and 2015 Vuelta champion then opted to skip the Tour in favour of a long break from racing.
That paved the way for Dan Martin to ride the Tour as undisputed team leader. And despite a bad crash, he placed 9th overall.
He also won stage 6 and was most aggressive rider on the three-week race; an honour that came with a trip to the final podium in Paris.
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