"The team has been selected to do the Tour de France and the Vuelta in 2023" - Lorrenzo Manzin hints TotalEnergies could be absent from Giro d'Italia

TotalEnergies' Lorrenzo Manzin has been speaking about his plans for 2023 and may have alluded that the team will not take part in next year's Giro d'Italia. This would mean an as-of-yet unknown team could take their wildcard spot in the race.

Speaking in an interview with Clicanoo, Manzin speaks of his desire to compete once again in a Grand Tour, saying the following "The team has been selected to do the Tour de France and the Vuelta in 2023," he says "The objective obviously remains to compete in a Grand Tour because it is an incredible event in a season. I thought about it a lot this year and it ended up holding me back a bit."

The 28-year-old Frenchman has ridden the Vuelta a Espana on four occasions in his career but not since 2020. Reflecting on his career so far Manzin said, "I'm in my 8th season with the pros and I know that I don't have 15 years of career still ahead of me. Now, there are still projects to accomplish and the one proposed to me by the TotalEnergies team is one of them."

Having recently signed a 2-year extension, Manzin is keen to pay back the faith shown in him by his team. "There are still plenty of areas in which I think I can progress, especially physically. I'm coming out of a good season and I'm coming to the next one with confidence. I don't feel worn out, on the contrary, I am even more motivated."