Meintjes first to arrive in Israel for Giro d'Italia - News Shorts

Dimension Data’s Louis Meintjes was one of the first riders to travel to Israel ahead of the start of this year's Giro d’Italia as the final countdown to the Friday's first stage began.

South African Meintjes, who flew in to Tel Aviv on Monday, is team principal Doug Ryder’s big hope for cultivating a Grand Tour winner at Dimension Data in the coming years, and this year's Giro d'Italia will be an opportunity for him to shine.

With the rest of the 2018 Giro peloton set to start arrive on Tuesday evening, attention will quickly turn to acclimatising to temperatures in the high 20s and low 30s this week, as well as shrugging off any minor jet-lag ahead of Friday's opening 9.7km individual time trial in Jerusalem. 

ADVERTISEMENT

All the 176 riders will undergo pre-race anti-doping tests by the UCI Anti-Doping Foundation on Wednesday morning. The teams will train on the road in Israel and hold press conferences and events on Wednesday and Thursday, with the official team presentation on Thursday evening. Training is allowed on the time trial course on Friday morning with the first rider kicking-off the 2018 Giro d'Italia at 13:50 local time.  

Lotto Soudal change name to Lotto-Fix ALL during Giro d'Italia

Belgian squad Lotto Soudal will be known as Lotto-Fix ALL for the duration of the Giro d'Italia, and the change brings with it a new jersey, with a blue-green design replacing the normally predominantly red jersey.

Bouhanni back to racing

Bakelants has 'hardware' removed from back

— Jan Bakelants (@Jan_Bakelants) April 29, 2018

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com