British WorldTour team Sky has also not selected any British riders in its nine-man roster for the prestigious three-week race. Several of Sky's British riders are coming out of a heavy spring campaign, riding in the concurrently-running Tour of California (May 15-22) or preparing for the Tour de France in July.
Mark Cavendish was the last British rider to win a stage of the Giro d'Italia, in 2013
On Tuesday, Sky confirmed its line-up would consist of Spaniards Mikel Landa, Mikel Nieve and David Lopez; Irish riders Philip Deignan and Nicolas Roche; German Christian Knees; Colombian Sebastian Henao; Italian Elia Viviani; and American Ian Boswell.
Sky is one of two teams in the 2016 Giro to not field any riders from its country of registration: the American Trek-Segafredo team is the other.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Mark Cavendish and Steve Cummings of the South African Dimension Data squad are also absent this year. Cavendish has won 15 stages of the race in his career.
Cavendish will join the Great Britain men's endurance team at an altitude training camp in Big Bear, California. He will then ride in the Tour of California in mid-May.
In recent years, Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins and David Millar have worn the coveted maglia rosa of Giro race leader. There has never been a British overall winner in its 98 editions.
Watch: Giro d'Italia 2016 route
Great Britain is currently the sixth-ranked nation in the UCI's WorldTour, behind Spain, Australia, Belgium, Colombia and France. The highest-ranked British rider is Ian Stannard (Sky) in 17th place, with Geraint Thomas (Sky) in 20th.
Nigel Wynn worked as associate editor on CyclingWeekly.com, he worked almost single-handedly on the Cycling Weekly website in its early days. His passion for cycling, his writing and his creativity, as well as his hard work and dedication, were the original driving force behind the website’s success. Without him, CyclingWeekly.com would certainly not exist on the size and scale that it enjoys today. Nigel sadly passed away, following a brave battle with a cancer-related illness, in 2018. He was a highly valued colleague, and more importantly, an exceptional person to work with - his presence is sorely missed.
Chinese X-Lab vies for global domination as it equips XDS Astana with bikes for the WorldTour
Tech of the week: Van Rysel releases an aero bike (quelle surprise!) plus a superlight carbon crankset from FSA, a long top tube bag from Tailfin and tyre liners from Zefal
