Giro 2014: Stage 7 Favourites: Sprint battle

Plenty of opportunities for the sprinters in the early days of this years Giro with stage 7 likely providing another showdown between the fast men. (Slideshow route/profile)

After 2 stages for climbers and puncheurs, not to mention a serious GC shake-up, the sprinters return to the spotlight today in what should be a bunch finish. Expect the same men to be challenging and 1 of them should be wearing the red points jersey at this point.

There are many capable sprinters in the Giro peloton this year and with no Kittel, Cav or Greipel, the opportunity for Grand Tour success increases dramatically. Bouhanni, Viviani, Farrar and Swift should be in the mix and let’s not forget Alessandro Petacchi (image), who has won numerous stages in the past and should captain OPQS in the sprints.

Bouhanni starts as favourite given his stage 4 win and it looks like the Frenchman is developing into a sprinter who will challenge the big three in the near future.

Michael Matthews deserves a mention, he was supposed to be a sprinter right? After winning a mountain stage in pink, it’s hard to know if he’ll get himself involved today but writing him off in any way at the moment could make us look very silly!