Ireland may have six Giro riders

Ireland could have up to six riders on the Giro d’Italia start line in Belfast on May 9 after the shortlist for wildcard entries for the three-week race was unveiled yesterday.

As it stands, there will almost definitely be three Irish starters — in the shape of Dan Martin, Philip Deignan and Nicolas Roche — the latter confirming yesterday that he would definitely start — but the chances of more entrants to the field have been given a significant boost by the race organisers.

Yesterday, eight teams were named as wildcard entries for the event with Sam Bennett’s Net App Endura, Martyn Irvine’s Unitedhealthcare, and Stephen Clancy’s Novo Nordisk in the running for the three available slots.