Jai Hindley and Romain Bardet will both line up for Team DSM at the Giro d’Italia in May as the team look to target the maglia rosa and the general classification.
Hindley finished a surprise second place last year, while Bardet moved from AG2R La Mondiale in the winter and will make his debut in the Italian Grand Tour.
"Once again, this year we head to the Giro d’Italia to go all-in for a team GC result and we really need to utilise our collective strength with a complete eight-rider effort to do that," team coach Matt Winston said in a statement released by the team on Wednesday morning.
The squad will be complemented by the experience of Nicolas Roche and Nikias Arndt, while Nico Denz, Max Kanter, Michael Storer, and Chris Hamilton make up the rest of the eight-man team.
According to Winston, Team DSM will also target specific stages – a tactic that netted them huge success in last year’s Tour de France, when the team reached Paris with three impressive stage wins.
"We’ve got a solid, clear plan formulated together with our experts and performance team that looks to different strategies and tactics that we can apply to really utilise our strengths and bring home that top result," he said.
"We’ll also keep in mind opportunities in the sprints as we look to grab some day results on the stages that best suit us. With our past success and memories in Italy we always look forward to racing there and getting our Grand Tour season underway.
"Morale amongst the team is super high and we are all really motivated to give our best to try to showcase our Team DSM jersey in Italy and bring home some top results."
Hindley came within a whisker of winning last year’s Giro, only losing the maglia rosa to Tao Geoghegan Hart in the final-day time trial. The Australian started this year with a solid 18th overall in Paris-Nice but was forced to abandon the Volta a Catalunya due to illness. He is down to ride next week’s Tour of the Alps, which will see him take on a number of his Giro d’Italia rivals in their final warm-up race.
Last month, Hindley spoke to Cyclingnews about his previous success at the Giro, and his general hopes for the future.
"It was a massive moment for me," he said. "I guess it was a bit of a surprise for a lot of people, but leading up to that Giro I was working my ass off so it was super nice.
"It was something that I’ve been working towards for my whole career and it came at the Giro. It gives me a lot of confidence but it’s just the beginning hopefully, a big step in the right direction. I want to be up there consistently, and I’ll try to aim for that this year."
Bardet has already made a strong impression in DSM colours. He has raced on the cobbles earlier this year and then finished eighth in Tirreno-Adriatico. Like Hindley, the Frenchman will take part in the Tour of the Alps, while he also has Liège-Bastogne-Liège on his race schedule ahead of the Giro.
After eight starts in the Tour de France, the 30-year-old skips his home race for the first time as he rides a combination of the Giro and the Vuelta a España later in the year.
