UAE Team Emirates Fabio Aru will step up his preparations for next month’s Giro d’Italia when he tackles the Tour of the Alps starting in Italy on Monday.

The five-day race, going from Trentino and over the border to Innsbruck in Austria, will be a serious dress rehearsal for the Giro with Chris Froome and Miguel Angel Lopez among the other star names competing this week.

Aru, who has enjoyed a bright start to life with the UAE outfit, will be using the race to build up his fitness after withdrawing from the Volta a Catalunya last month due to a leg injury.

The 27-year-old crashed during the first stage of the race but continued to compete until the fifth stage before pulling out to allow his leg to recover.

Now back on his bike, Aru is relishing the prospect of repeating his early season form which saw him seal 13th place in the Abu Dhabi Tour and 12th in the Tirreno-Adriatico.

The Sardinian climber said. “I feel great. I’m going to find it tough at the Tour of the Alps, where I want to do well and prepare in the best possible way with an eye on my big goal, the Giro d’Italia.”

“It will be a difficult race, and there’s no shortage of climbs. It’s important to ride wisely, and whatever happens in the race, we’ll face when we get to it.”

Stage one on Monday sees the peloton tackle the 134.6km course from Arco to Folgaria, with an 18km climb to finish the day.

UAE Team Emirates line-up: Fabio Aru (Ita), Valerio Conti (Ita), Kristijan Durasek (Cro), Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor), Przemyslaw Niemec (Pol), Simone Petilli (Ita), Edward Ravasi (Ita).