Peter Sagan will be in attendance when the route for the 2020 Giro d'Italia is announced Thursday, reinforcing speculation that the three-time world champion will debut in Corsa Rosa next year.

A week after the 2020 Tour de France route is announced in Paris, Giro organizer RCS Sport will unveil the 21 stages that will make up the 103rd edition in Milan on Thursday.

In addition to 2019 champion Richard Karapas, Sagan, who has won a record seven green jerseys in the Tour de France but has never run the Giro, will also take part.

The announcement of the three-time world champion's attendance at the presentation is behind an article in Sunday's La Gazzetta dello Sport (a newspaper owned by the Giro's parent company) that heavily links Sagan to being on the start line.

The article noted that Sagan had visited Italy earlier this month to appear at the Trento Festival of Sport, during which he claimed that Italy felt like "home." Sagan used to live in the northeast of the country, speak the language, and race for the Liquigas team, and according to La Gazzetta, Sagan's Giro appearance will happen "sooner rather than later," and Bora-Hansgrohe's team manager, Ralf Denk, was asked if it would happen in 2020 to which he replied, "Why not?"

The 2020 Giro d'Italia will start in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, 50 km from the border with Sagan's native Slovakia. The full route will be announced on Thursday, but the Budapest Grande Partenza stage has already been confirmed and will consist of a 9.5 km individual time trial followed by two mostly flat stages. The famous pink leader's jersey, Maria Rosa, may not be out of reach for sprinters like Sagan if he can keep a slim lead in the short time trial and earn bonus seconds in the two following stages.

Sagan has never raced the Giro and prefers to focus on the spring classics before resting up for the Tour de France. If he does not sacrifice either of these ambitions, his Giro run will be short-lived and he will return home without completing all 21 stages.

Cycling News will have more on the route's structure on Tuesday morning.