Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo) will return to Adelaide, Australia in January for his third career Tour Down Under appearance according to reports in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. The first race on the WorldTour calendar takes place 16-21 January around Adelaide, South Australia.

Gesink hasn't raced since leaving the Tour de France in July having sustained a fractured vertebra in a stage nine crash. The Dutchman avoided surgery but was forced to wear a back brace for two months following the crash. Able to use a home trainer with his brace on, Gesink returned to training on the road last month.

Gesink's best Tour Down Under result came in 2014 when he placed sixth while at the 2017 edition of the race, he was eighth overall. The race programme for the 'The Condor of Varsseveld' is set to be finalised at the LottoNL-Jumbo team camp in early-December. According to the Dutch newspaper, Gesink is also to race the Tour de France again in July. Likely teammates include Tour de France stage winners Dylan Groenewegen, Primoz Roglic, Lars Boom, and Jos van Emden, Steven Kruijswijk, Timo Roosen and Koen Bouwman.

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De Telegraaf also reports that Boom wil return to the Tour Down Under and won't be racing any 'cross events during the off-season. Boom has started his season in Australia for the last two years, using the six-stage race as an important block in the build up the classics.

New Zealander George Bennett is also set to race the Tour Down Under after he was forced out of the race in 2017 due to glandular fever. The Tour of California winner fell ill at the Tour de France was despite recovering, was ht again by illness at the Vuelta a España and was forced to abandon. It is likely Bennett would race the New Zealand nationals the week prior to the Tour Down Under.

The full LottoNl-Jumbo rider programme is set to be finalised at the team camp with a roster announcement for the Tour Down Under expected in early-January. 

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

Off the back of the Oceania track championships, the Australian women's endurance team has decamped to Adelaide for its first training camp under new coach Jason Bartram. After four year's in the men's endurance programme, Bartram took up his new role in July, replacing Gary Sutton, and is charged with guiding the squad to Olympic and Commonwealth Games success from next year.

For Bartram and his riders, the camp is the beginning of his push for gold medal success at the home 2018 Commonwealth Games in April and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The Australian track nationals in early February will be another important event.

While the squad has undergone changes in recent years with retirements, the core of Amy Cure, Annette Edmondson, Ashlee Ankudinoff, Rebecca Wiasak, Alex Manly and Georgia Baker assembled in Adelaide for the camp. Also at the camp is a group of riders Bartram believes will be crucial to long-term success on the track, Macey Stewart, Lauren Perry, Josie Talbot, Danielle McKinnirey, Nicola Macdonald, Chloe Moran and Kristina Clonan.

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"This year is all about gaining momentum, momentum in the training environment," Bartram said. "It is exciting to see there are a few key areas where we can make great improvements and we believe we can close these gap to the current world's best.

"But to do this, it is about having consistent time with the team to actually focus on the gaps. And we find that when we race, when we have to travel to races on a regular basis, you are two, three weeks and you are mostly thinking about the next performance as opposed spending the time to be better in the longer term."

For Bartram, he believes that competition and high-level training is key for his riders and will pay off at international championships

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

Having pored over the details of the route for the 2018 Giro d'Italia, Thibaut Pinot has said that he wants to return to the Italian Grand Tour next season. The Frenchman hinted that he could also join Chris Froome in backing it up with a ride at the Tour de France, before targeting the World Championships in September.

Pinot made his debut at the Giro last season and finished fourth overall, just 37 seconds off the podium. The climbing-heavy and time trial-light course has enticed Pinot, who says the finer details of his calendar will be meted out at a training camp next month.

"Of course, I would really like to take part in this Giro, especially after seeing the route," Pinot told Ouest France. "We will have to wait for the training camp with my team in Calpe in December to discuss it. Next year will be a special year where I will also target the World Championships so there will be a programme to draw up."

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Pinot rode both the Giro and Tour for the first time this season. He went into his second Grand Tour hunting for stage victories after winning a stage and coming so close to the podium at the Giro. The 27-year-old bided his time in the opening weeks as he looked to conserve his energy for a tilt at the big mountains at the Tour, but he never got his opportunity as illness forced him to quit in the final week. Should he try the double again, he would do it differently.

"If I do the Giro-Tour double next year, I will try to make the Tour in a better shape than this year," Pinot explained. "You must always learn from your mistakes and this year I made a few. So, if I come back on the Tour next July, I will be in better condition.

"It's not easy, but there will be another week next year between the two races. Everything will also depend on my start to the season and the goals that the team sets for me."

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

Vincenzo Nibali seemed genuinely surprised and a little put out to discover that Chris Froome will target the Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double in 2018, with the Briton's decision and eight-second video message stealing the limelight and suddenly overshadowing the Sicilian's plans for next season. He made a point of reminding Froome of the difficulties of the Giro and warned that Italian riders will always have home advantage.

Nibali has already named Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the road World Championships as goals for 2018, and he plans to ride the Vuelta a Espana to prepare for the tough route in Innsbruck. He and his Bahrain-Merida team will make a final decision regarding the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France next week during their first training camp in Croatia.

Nibali suggested that he could even ride both races, but that would not fit in with his shot at winning the rainbow jersey. It is widely expected that Nibali will target the Tour de France and so be obliged to miss his home Grand Tour.

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"I'll decide in the next week at the team camp and we'll officialise my race programme after also considering things with my team. We'll decide together," Nibali said.

"It's a beautiful and very interesting route, even if it's best suited to Chris. The Giro is very particular, though, it's never a logical race. There are eight mountain finishes but their difficulty increases gradually. The road to Etna is easier than the one we raced on this year and Montevergine is fast and so not very selective. The real climbs come in the final week with the Zoncolan, the Colle delle Finestre dirt road, Jafferau and Cervinia. The time trial is not long and seems about right for a 21-day race; it was too long this year."

A warning about the weather

Nibali denied that his decision on the Giro d'Italia will be influenced by Froome's presence. He suggested that Froome's decision will benefit cycling, while pointing out he has already won all three Grand Tours in his career.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

RCS Sport has removed references to 'West Jerusalem' from its official maps and route information for the 2018 Giro d'Italia after the Israeli government threatened to withdraw its support for next year's Grande Partenza in protest.

The 2018 Giro gets underway on May 4 with a 9.7-kilometre time trial that takes part in the western sector of Jerusalem. When details of the three opening stages were unveiled in Israel in September, RCS Sport's maps referred to the city simply as 'Jerusalem,' but the maps released during the presentation of the full Giro route on Wednesday listed the stage town as 'West Jerusalem.'

Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since seizing it during the Six-Day War in 1967. The country later annexed it, although the international community has never recognised that administrative move. Israel now claims Jerusalem as its undivided capital, but Palestinians believe East Jerusalem has been occupied illegally and hope to establish it as the capital of their future state. 

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In a strongly-worded statement to AFP shortly after Wednesday's Giro presentation, Israel's sports minister Miri Regev and tourism minister Yariy Levin claimed that RCS Sport's use of the term West Jerusalem was "a breach of the agreements with the Israeli government" and described Jerusalem as "Israel's capital [where] there is no east or west."

"If the wording does not change, the Israeli government will not be a partner in the event," Regev and Levin concluded.

In a brief statement on Thursday morning, RCS Sport confirmed that it had removed references to West Jerusalem from its technical material relating to the 2018 Giro. The race website now lists the stage location as Jerusalem and not West Jerusalem.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

Holowesko-Citadel will ride BMC bikes after signing a three-year deal with the Swiss manufacturer that will see the US Pro Continental team through the 2020 season.

The move marks a homecoming of sorts for the team, which started as BMC-Hincapie Sportswear in 2012 as a feeder program for the BMC Racing WorldTour team. The team morphed into Hincapie Sportswear in 2013 as BMC created its own dedicated development squad in Europe, and the next year it moved onto Felt Bicycles, which the team continued to ride through this year.

Team co-owner George Hincapie finished his career with BMC Racing, spending three years there through 2012. The apparel company he owns with his brother, Rich, later supplied BMC's clothing.

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"I'm thrilled to work with BMC Switzerland again. It's like returning to the family," said George Hincapie. "In 2009 when I signed with BMC Racing Team, people questioned the decision because I was moving to a smaller team. We then went on to win the Tour de France, and now BMC Switzerland is one of the most successful racing brands in professional cycling. Personally, I'm excited to now have our team associated with this brand."

BMC Racing dropped its development program in the off-season, opening an opportunity for BMC Switzerland to bolster the company's global presence elsewhere.

"BMC Switzerland is a performance-driven brand with racing deep in our roots and DNA across all forms of cycling disciplines including road, mountain-bike and triathlon," said BMC Switzerland CEO David Zurcher.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

The Grand Tour landscape for 2018 continues to develop with the unveiling of next year's Giro d'Italia route on Wednesday evening. The 3,546.2-kilometre, three-week event starts in Israel and takes in just 44.2km of time trialling and a total of eight summit finishes.

Perhaps the biggest news of the evening was the confirmation that Chris Froome would make a return after an eight-year absence, to attempt the fabled Giro-Tour double.

In the latest edition of the Cyclingnews podcast, Daniel Benson and Sadhbh O'Shea, joined by Procycling editor Ed Pickering, take a closer look at the route, ask if Froome can achieve where others have failed in the past 20 years and discuss the political challenges faced by the organisers by bringing the race to Israel.

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We also hear from this year's champion Tom Dumoulin, and Cyclingnews' European editor Stephen Farrand, who was at the route announcement, makes a guest appearance to give us his thoughts on the route.

To subscribe to the Cyclingnews podcast, click here.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

The Israel Cycling Academy continues to bolster its bid for a wildcard invitation to the 2018 Giro d'Italia, which will start with three stages in Israel, by adding four new Italian sponsors for next year.

De Rosa will take over from Cannondale as the team's bicycle sponsor, while Italian companies Nalini, Selle Italia and FSA Vision have also signed with the Pro Continental team.

Riders will have their first chance to use the new equipment as the team travels today to Cambrils, Spain, for an opening training camp.

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"Our partnership with these Italian companies is a symbolic relationship," said team manager Ran Margaliot. "We see the upcoming year as the year of cycling in Israel due to the arrival of the Giro d'Italia in Israel. Having an Italian flavour is very exciting for us, and hopefully, we will be able to pay them back with an invitation to the Giro d'Italia, which we will know about that in a month or so."

Aside from adding an Italian flavour to the team, Margaliot said, the new sponsors also bring a "style" to the squad as the team and riders attempt to promote cycling in Israel.

"It's very important for us as a team to try to represent modern cycling and to encourage people to see cycling as sexy and a very appealing sport, so we would like to have this kind of flavour in our team," he said. "We hope with our Israeli team and the Italian standard of quality and style, we will be able to achieve amazing things."

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

The 101st edition of the Giro d'Italia starts in Israel on Friday, May 4 and ends three weeks later in Rome on Sunday, May 27. It is the 13th time the Giro d'Italia will start outside of Italy and the first time for the Grande Partenza outside of Europe.

The race consists of 21 stages and three rest days on the three Mondays; with three stages in Israel, three on the island of Sicily on the return to Italy. The remaining 15 stages taking the riders north to the Carnic Alps to climb Monte Zoncolan and then west to the Alps near the French border for the final mountain stages to Prato Nevoso, Jafferau and Cervinia. The riders will transfer from Israel to Italy and to the final stage in Rome by plane.

Rome will host the final stage for only the fourth time. It previously hosted the concluding stage in 1911, 1950 and 2009.

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Race distance: 3,546km
Average stage distance: 168.9km
Total distance of time trials: 44.2 (stage 1: 9.7km, stage 16: 34.5km)
Categorised climbs: 39 for a total
Elevation gained on climbs: 44,000m

Longest stage: Stage 10 from Penne to Gualdo Tadino will be the longest stage of the 2018 Giro d'Italia at 239km. The longest-ever stage was from Lucca to Rome in 1914 over a distance of 430km.
Shortest stage: The stage 1 time trial is the shortest at 9.7km.

The stages are officially classified depending on the degree of difficulty to decide the official time cut and other organisational aspects.

Leaders jerseys and teams

Historical moments

Froome, the Giro and the double

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

Annemiek van Vleuten, time trial world champion, showed off her new white and rainbow-striped skinsuit in a team photo shoot. The Orica-Scott women's team shared a gallery of images with Cyclingnews and included several images on its team Facebook page Thursday. 

Van Vleuten was supposed to wear her new time trial world champion kit for the first time in a race at the Tour of Bright in Australia but the three-day event, which was due to start on December 1, was cancelled due to severe weather warnings across Melbourne and Victoria.

The team said on its Facebook page, "We are sad that the Tour of Bright was cancelled this weekend & she won't get to race in it, but we had some fun with a photo shoot with Annemiek van Vleuten anyway. We'll just have to do it again for the 2018 version!!"

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Orica announced it would end its title sponsorship of the women's, under-23 Continental and WorldTour team at the end of 2017, while Scott continued on for another three-year term beginning in 2017. Gerry Ryan, the owner of the Greenedge cycling teams, confirmed he will directly help to fund the women's and under-23 Continental teams for 2018 as they search for a title sponsor.

As such, the team confirmed to Cyclingnews that Van Vleuten's time trial world champion's kit will have minor changes next year, and a new debut is set for January 31 at the new UCI 2.2 Women's Herald Sun Tour in Melbourne on January 30 and 31. It will be held ahead of the men's event, which runs from February 1-5.

Van Vleuten won the time trial title at the UCI Road World Championships in Bergen in September. She has also signed a two-year deal with the team, extending her contract until the end of 2019.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced this week a four-year ban imposed on US masters national champion Jenna Blandford, 33, of Louisville, Kentucky. Blandford was reported to the agency's Play Clean Tip Center hotline by her boyfriend, Jeff Miller, who accepted a four-year ban and agreed to cooperate with USADA.

According to the American Arbitration Association (AAA) award document, Blandford lived with Miller, her coach and partner, who testified during the arbitration hearing that he used testosterone. Blandford also used testosterone, according to Miller, until her voice began to change, at which point he says she switched to human growth hormone (hGH) and oxandrolone.

Their relationship ended in November, 2016 and she moved out. During their break-up, Miller had threatened to turn her in to USADA for doping.

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Miller provided text message exchanges as well as five used syringes, opened vials of Soma-Max 10 with hGH, an open bottle of oxandrolone and receipts for the purchase of the prohibited substances.

Blandford denied using the drugs, claiming that Miller faked the text message exchanges and turned her in out of spite after she left him. She submitted to an out-of-competition doping control on December 3, 2016 and tested negative for performance enhancing substances.

In 2017, Blandford continued to compete, winning four short-track races in Louisville and several other top-10 finishes in cross-country events, including a fourth in the Lumberjack 100 in Michigan, third in the Pisgah Monster Cross Challenge in North Carolina and third in the Fool's Gold race in Georgia in September.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

The organisers of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race have confirmed that 2017 champions Nikias Arndt (Team Sunweb) and Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-Scott) will return to defend their titles in 2018.

The 2016 winners of the race, Van Vleuten's Orica-Scott teammate Amanda Spratt and Peter Kennaugh with his new Bora-Hansgrohe team, are also confirmed starters for the January 27 and 28 races. The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race - Towards Zero Race Melbourne criterium around Albert Park will go ahead for a second year ahead of the road races in Geelong. Caleb Ewan is confirmed for the Thursday criterium but will not race the Sunday road race.

The courses have also been tweaked for 2018 with race director Scott Sunderland explaining the changes.

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"We will see the 2018 Elite Men tackle the iconic climb, Challambra Crescent, a fourth time," Sunderland said. "While it will be the first time in the event's history that the women race over Challambra Crescent. This is going to be an incredible viewing opportunity for spectators as they get to see the riders up close on the hardest climb. There's no hiding on Challambra – and that’s what’s great about it. It just makes everyone give that extra few per cent."

Arndt, who beat Cameron Meyer and Simon Gerrans in a close sprint finish, remains confident of his ability to defend his title despite the added difficulty of a fourth ascent of Challambra.

"Everyone will make it a bit harder for me [at the 2018 Cadel Road Race]. Everyone knows of me more so they will try to attack me. That's what I expect but, so far, I'm in good shape and I will go for it," said Arndt. "It's very physical, it's a hard race, it's the perfect race. I'm training hard already, preparing well and looking forward to getting the chance to defend it."

Arndt's win kick-started a highly successful season for Sunweb which included overall Giro d'Italia victory for Tom Dumoulin, two stages and the Tour de France green jersey for Michael Matthews, two stages and the Tour de France king of the mountains classification for Warren Barguil. There was also BinckBank GC vicrory for Dumoulin and the World team time trial title. Dumoulin also won the World time trial title in September.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

Canada's Olympic-medal winning women's endurance squad will be at the third round of the TISSOT UCI Track Cycling World Cup set to take place at the Mattamy Cycling Centre in Milton, Ontario, from December 1-3.

The focus will be on the team pursuit, where Canada has won bronze medals in the past two Olympics. The squad will be anchored by Olympian Allison Beveridge, who will also race the Omnium. Jasmin Duehring, who won a silver medal in the Points Race at the last World Championships, will compete in that event at Milton, as well as the Madison with teammate Steph Roorda.

"This is an exciting time for our program," said Craig Griffin, Women's Track Endurance Coach. "We are fortunate enough to have seven athletes getting ready for the World Championships and Commonwealth Games, so in the process we have seven athletes who can ride the four events at the World Cup here in Milton. We will have six athletes ready to ride in the Team Pursuit, and hopefully have the opportunity to have them ride in the different rounds of the competition, in different combinations."

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The Milton World Cup marks a return to the top level for Beveridge, who was off the bike for five months after surgery in January to correct a lingering injury she suffered in the 2016 Hong Kong World Cup. She missed the world championships in April but was back on form in October for Canadian nationals,where she took three titles.

"It was a significant process that had a lot of ups and downs along the way. A couple of people told me I wasn't going to be able to come back and race again," Beveridge told the Canadian Broadcasting Company for an article published this week.

Other riders on the team include Amelia Walsh, who will compete in all three sprint events - Sprint, Keirin and Team Sprint; she will be joined by newcomer Tegan Cochrane for the latter competition.

Anna Sanchis announces retirement

TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank squad for Women's Tour Down Under 

Beggin, Bertizzolo and Vieceli extend with Astana Women's Team

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Belgian squad Quick-Step Floors has been confirmed as a starter for February's 2.1 Colombia Oro y Paz. Sprinter Fernando Gaviria and Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe will headline the squad at the 6-11 February race.

Quick-Step Floors has already been announced as one of the team's for next month's Vuelta a San Juan and will continue his South American venture with the new Colombian stage race. The team joins Movistar as as WorldTour teams for the Colombia Oro y Paz.

Targeting further success at the Vuelta a San Juan with Gaviria in January, who will also be able to call upon regular leadout man Max Richeze, the versatile team will look to continue its winning ways in Colombia.

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Gaviria finished his 2017 season at the inaugural Tour of Guangxi where he won four stages. The 23-year-old finished the season with 14 wins to his name, including four stages of the Giro d'Italia, and will take on the mantle as Quick-Step Floors' top sprinter in 2018.

For the new stage race, Quick-Step Floors will also field two of its neo-pros, Ecuadorian Jhonatan Jose Narvaez and Colombina Alvaro Hodeg. Belgian Iljo Kiesse will round out the team.

The team will also be fielding a squad at the WorldTour opener next month, Tour Down Under (16-21 January), and possibly the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race the following week in Geelong, requiring it to spread it riders across the globe.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

The Boels-Dolmans team has secured deals with both of its title sponsors until the end of 2020. The Dolmans landscaping company has sponsored the team since its inception in 2010 with Boels Rentals coming on board for the 2012 season.

Following the arrival of Boels as a sponsor, the team has quickly risen to the top ranks of women’s cycling. It has finished top of the team rankings for the past two season with Megan Guarnier winning the inaugural Women’s WorldTour for them.

“There wasn’t much to discuss when contracts were renegotiated,” said Boels Rental’s Corporate Marketing & Communications Manager, Yvo Hoppers. “It’s clear from everything that the team does that its management and riders have the right attitude towards professional cycling, which includes respect, sportsmanship and commitment. Boels Rental is pleased that the team will carry its name for another two years.”

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Boels Dolmans dominated the Women’s WorldTour once again this season with Anna van der Breggen winning the individual rankings while the team ended the year over 1,000 points ahead of the next best, Sunweb, in the team rankings. A large part of that was down to Van der Breggen’s domination of the Ardennes Classics, where she won all three races, along with the second place finishes of Lizzie Deignan.

The team ended the season with 29 victories, which included, in addition to all three Ardennes races, the Giro Rosa, the Tour of California and the Crescent Vargarda team time trial. Chantal Blaak also ensured that the rainbow jersey would remain within the team for a third season when she won the world road race title in Bergen.

“Boels-Dolmans Cycling Team is the number one UCI women’s team in the world. Team spirit, passion and commitment from everyone involved in the team have led to our successes,” said Erwin Janssen, owner of Dolmans Landscaping Group. “We celebrate all of our achievements together and I think that’s exemplary of the atmosphere within the team. I’m thrilled that our partnership with the team will be continued for another two years. We are still eager for more success.”

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

Fabio Aru laughed out loud when it was pointed out that he could be the only big-name rival to Chris Froome at the 2018 Giro d’Italia. He seemed slightly scared by the idea of taking on Froome and Team Sky but insisted that Froome’s presence will only make the Giro d’Italia a better, more spectacular race.

Aru and his new UAE-Team Emirates squad are expected to confirm the Giro d’Italia as the focus of his season, with fellow new Grand Tour leader Dan Martin likely to focus on the Tour de France.

Froome’s presence at the Giro d’Italia could dissuade other riders from heading to Italy and convince them they may have a better chance of winning the Tour de France as Froome goes for the double. Tom Dumoulin has put off revealing his plans until the Team Sunweb presentation in early January, while Vincenzo Nibali seemed nonplussed. Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe), Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) and Louis Meintjes (Dimension Data) are expected to ride the Giro d’Italia, but Froome and Aru could be the only previous Grand Tour winners to line up in Israel for the race.

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La Gazzetta dello Sport recently quoted Aru as saying he is ‘putting everything on the Giro’ and he did not shy away from the fight.

“Froome is a great rider but the Giro d’Italia is a big race, it’s about more than one rider. I think it’s good he’s riding, his presence makes the Giro d’Italia an even bigger race. It’s always spectacular but will be even more so now,” Aru told Cyclingnews.

Froome was absent when Aru won the 2015 Vuelta a Espana. His best performance against the Briton at the Tour de France was his fifth place this year, but he finished second to Alberto Contador in the 2015 Giro d’Italia and was third behind Nairo Quintana and Rigoberto Uran in 2014. Froome rode the Giro d’Italia in 2009 and 2010, but that was before he developed into a Grand Tour winner.

The Giro d'Italia route

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

Lagos de Covadonga will again host a mountain finish in the second week of next year’s Vuelta a Espana according to reports in the local Asturian press. La Nueva España suggests that the Spanish Grand Tour will visit the picturesque spot in the Picos de Europa for the final stage of the second week on September 9.

A ride to the lakes has been rumoured for some months and the tarmac on the climb is currently being resurfaced by the local authorities. The September 9 finish would coincide with the Dia de Asturias, which takes place the day before, and several anniversaries, including the 100-year anniversary of the national park that encompasses the lakes.

Lagos de Covadonga has been a regular feature throughout the history of the Vuelta a Espana and has hosted a stage finish on no less than 20 occasions. 1983 was the first visit for the Grand Tour, with Marino Lejarreta winning the stage. Nairo Quintana won at Lagos de Covadonga when the race last went to the area in 2016, en route to his overall victory.

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The road up to the lakes is 12.6 kilometres long and averages 7.3 per cent, with sections that reach as much as 15 per cent.

The 2018 Vuelta a Espana will begin in Malaga on August 25 and will finish in Madrid on September 16.

Les Praeres de Nava is another Asturian climb that has been put forward as a potential summit finish as part of a tough stretch in the Asturian mountains. Other summit finishes have been rumoured, including Camino del Rey, Monte Oiz in the Basque Country and a trip to Andorra.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

While the 2018 Giro d’Italia route has been unveiled to the public the number of Grand Tour contenders set to take part remains unclear. Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) are two of the exceptions, having already declared their participation, while the likes of Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) and the defending champion, Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) remain coy. Cyclingnews looks at the key riders who could line up in Jerusalem next May.

Chris Froome (Team Sky)
Chance of riding: 100 per cent
GC prospects: The four-time Tour de France winner has already announced that he will race the Giro for the first time since disqualification in 2010. The Team Sky leader is an unrecognisable force since then, and has become stage racing’s dominant proposition. He appears to modify his characteristics for each challenge, and while the Giro is an entirely different beast to the Tour, or even the Vuelta, Froome will head to Israel as the man to beat. Whether he can maintain his condition and win a fourth straight Grand Tour in July is far more uncertain but the 32-year-old’s participation marks Team Sky’s most determined attempt to win the Giro since their inception.

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Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates)
Chance of riding: 100 per cent
GC prospects: Aru is the only other genuine Grand Tour contender to have thrown his hat into the ring at this early stage. The Italian, having moved teams from Astana to UAE Team Emirates, doesn’t have the armoury around him that Froome possesses at Team Sky but the importance of racing on home roads can’t be overlooked, and while Froome has been concentrating on the Tour the Sardinian has finished second and third at the Giro, and picked up three stage wins along the way. The lack of depth at UAE could prove to be a telling issue at the Giro but at least Aru can concentrate on a Grand Tour that has neither a team time trial nor Alexander Kristoff to contend with. Spare a thought for Dan Martin.

Esteban Chaves (Orica Scott)
GC prospects: 100 per cent
Overall: After a disappointing 2017 Chaves needs a strong Giro d’Italia, and while Orica Scott are keeping their Grand Tour plans under wraps until the new year, Italy makes the most sense for the Colombian climber. Second in 2016, and with a relatively mountain-friendly parcours, the 27-year-old could be Froome’s most dangerous rival. The prologue in Jerusalem will be a minor concern, and although the Rovereto test against the clock will likely see Froome gain between two and three minutes, Chaves should be knocking on Matt White’s door demanding a Giro shot.

Louis Meintjes (Dimension Data)
Chance of riding: 100 per cent
Overall: Both Meintjes and his team have already announced that the South African climber will target the Giro in 2018. The Tour de France remains the long-term goal but with Mark Cavendish heading to France in order to break Eddy Merckx's stage record, Meintjes is heading to Italy in order to ‘get some more experience’. Having finished in the top-10 in three Grand Tours already one could argue that the Dimension Data returner already has the knowledge to race over three weeks but the Giro perhaps gives him the chance to compete over more favorable terrain. The lack of team time trialing in Italy will please him, while his style of plugging away in the mountains and remaining consistent should help during the Giro’s brutal mountains.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

Tom Dumoulin has revealed he recently spent two days undergoing tests in hospital and is following a special diet as he tries to understand and resolve what caused him to make an emergency toilet stop just after the summit of the Passo Stelvio during stage 16 of the Giro d’Italia this year.

The Dutchman was seen stripping off and then hid below a grass banking to make his sudden toilet stop. He eventually got going again and chased down his rivals but the problems could have cost him victory in the Giro d’Italia.

He managed to limit his losses to two minutes, retained the race leader’s pink jersey by a few seconds, and went on to win the Giro d’Italia ahead of Nairo Quintana and Vincenzo Nibali. However the stomach problems revealed a weakness in his armour.

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Dumoulin revealed that he had suffered with a similar problem during the 2016 Tour de France and initially suggested the cause was eating too many gels and due to high altitude sending blood away from his gut to his legs. He is using the off-season to try to find a cure to his problem.

"That problem has still not be solved," Dumoulin revealed during an appearance in front of hundreds of Dutch University students for a television called College Tour that will be shown on Dutch television on Friday evening.

"I recently spent two days in the hospital in Enschede for all kinds of research. Now I'm following a diet where we hope to find out whether I'm sensitive to certain products. It's one of those things I'm doing now in the hope of being better for the years to come."

Too much starch?

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

Procycling’s annual review of the year is now available in UK shops, featuring the Classics rider of the year Greg Van Avermaet on the cover.

Van Avermaet gives the impression that he is a rider whose time has come. The breadth of his talent was never in dispute – he spent much of the last decade achieving high placings in just about every major one-day race on the calendar. Winning, however, was a different matter. But his wins in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Olympic road race in 2016 were the harbingers of much more success this year. He took a repeat win in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad but followed up with a much more impressive sequence – wins in E3 Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix. “It’s not easy. It still hurts,” he told us “But it’s been different this year. It is easier. I’ve been surprised winning could be that easy.”

We spent a morning at Van Avermaet’s house in Belgium while he explained how his career has taken off in the last two seasons, and talked about his next target, the obvious missing link from his spring palmarès. In the Tour of Flanders, he was taken off by Peter Sagan, who crashed on the Oude Kwaremont in pursuit of Philippe Gilbert, and still had enough left to come second. But that leaves unfinished business for 2018, which he is keen to address. “Flanders is the only thing. Maybe Strade Bianche. The two races I was second in this spring, I would like to win.”

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Procycling also takes a look at Alejandro Valverde’s extraordinary spring. If Van Avermaet dominated the cobbles, Valverde was the man of the hilly Classics and early-season stage races. He won Flèche Wallonne for the fifth time, Liège-Bastogne-Liège for the fourth, and also took victories in the Tours of Catalonia and the Basque Country. We interviewed a set of experts, team-mates, Movistar management, ex-riders and the man himself to build up a 360-degree look at his season, arguably the most successful of his long career before he crashed out of the Tour de France.

Also in the magazine: in-depth analysis of the year in sprinting – did 2017 see a shift to a scenario in which there was no one dominant sprinter? We’ve interviewed Jakob Fuglsang about his breakthrough win at the Critérium du Dauphiné and how it has affected his ambitions for the years to come. Photographer Kristof Ramon shares his best pictures of the Tour de France.

We looked at Sunweb’s amazing collection of jerseys – in winning pink at the Giro and green and polka dot at the Tour, they won three of cycling’s five most iconic jerseys – and interviewed an interesting set of historical antecedents to their 2017 winners.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com