The Tour of Hainan edition starting tomorrow from Qionghai will be a record-breaking event in terms of international participation. At the start of this short Chinese stage race, now in its sixteenth edition, there will be 137 athletes representing 33 nations, a number never seen before in this event.

The home team will dominate, thanks to the eight local continental teams, with 21 elements, while the most multicultural team will be the only World Tour team in the race, the XDS Astana Team, captained as last year by Dimitri Sedun, which will line up 7 riders from 7 different nationalities. Among these, the defending champion Aaron Gate (winner last year of the yellow jersey, two stages, and the points classification), the 2024 runner-up Henok Mulubrhan, and Matteo Malucelli, making his debut in the event along with 85 other competitors.

The rider from Forlì, who joined the Kazakh team this year, will be one of the five Italian standard-bearers at the start (the lowest number since 2013), along with Andrea Pietrobon (the only Italian in the Polti-VisitMalta team, which, given the course, will focus heavily on the sprints of Manuel Peñalver) and the duo Andrea Piras-Luca Verrando from the Team Solution Tech – Vini Fantini, a team that includes the only Italian who has previously raced in Hainan (Davide Baldaccini) and one of the most anticipated sprinters, Dusan Rajovic.

The Serbian will throw himself into the sprint looking for glory, competing shoulder to shoulder with a fierce and qualified group of rivals including the already mentioned Gate, Peñalver, and Malucelli, the Estonian from Quick Pro Team Martin Laas (winner in Lingshui in 2024 and now a deep connoisseur of Chinese races), the ex-Astana Kazakh Yevgeniy Gidich (now with China Glory - Mentech Continental Cycling Team), the Dutch rider from Parkhotel Valkenburg Jesper Rasch, the New Zealander George Jackson from Burgos Burpellet BH (Gate's valuable pilot fish last year in Hainan) and the man in the best form at the moment, the Danish rider (ex Bingoal WB) from Li Ning Star Alexander Salby, who will arrive fresh from his three stage wins (accompanied by the overall and points classification victories) at the recent The Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn's Cup Tour of Thailand.

These same riders, given the course's configuration, could also aim for the final yellow jersey, an objective whose doors might open for talents like Mulubrhan, the eternal Oscar Sevilla (still in the peloton at 48 years old) and his student from Team Medellin-EPM Wilmar Paredes (last year's KOM jersey winner), the Romanian from Li Ning Star Cristian Raileanu, the Hungarian Marton Dina (previously seen defending EOLO-Kometa colors), Xabier Berasategi from Euskaltel-Euskadi, and either Adne van Enegelen (1st in the last Tour of Thailand's general classification) or the ex-Astana Vadim Pronskiy from Terengganu Cycling Team.

In any case, barring unexpected breakaways or surprising long-distance attacks, the fight for the general classification promises to be very tight, a near-tradition for the Tour of Hainan, which was decided by 1" in 2023, 2" in 2024, 3" in 2017, and 9" in 2015 - three editions where the Italian triumphs of Fausto Masnada, Jacopo Mosca, and Sacha Modolo painted the race in the colors of the Italian flag, demonstrating the good relationship that Italy and its riders have always had with this race, as evidenced by the 24 stage victories so far (a record shared with Russia).