From Saturday, May 4th, the Giro d’Italia, the first major cycling tour of the year, begins. This 107th edition of the tour starts in Venaria Reale, a municipality in Turin, and will last for three weeks. This year, there is one top favorite, as Tadej Pogacar plans to win his third major tour.
Giro d’Italia
This tour was conceived in 1908 as a counterpart to the Tour de France and was first ridden in 1909. Three riders have won the Giro five times: Italian cycling legends Alfredo Binda and Fausto Coppi, and the Belgian Eddy Merckx.
Last year, it could have been very nice for Belgium. The reigning world champion Remco Evenepoel defeated home favorite Filippo Ganna in the opening time trial, but a few days later, he handed the pink leader’s jersey to Andreas Leknessund. Evenepoel later abandoned the race due to a COVID-19 infection. Overall winner Primoz Roglic managed to take the leader’s jersey on the penultimate day, becoming the first Slovenian to win the Giro.
Route
This year’s edition has a very diverse route. After starting in the Piedmont region, the riders quickly head towards several climbs, including the steep ascent towards San Vito. The next day, the riders finish at the sanctuary of Oropa, where Marco Pantani and Tom Dumoulin made history. After a few more hilly stages, the opening week concludes near Naples.
After the first rest day, the riders will tackle more climbs, including a long ascent towards Cusano Mutri. The climbs are interspersed with a sprinters’ stage, and the penultimate stage of the second week will be a time trial. The conclusion of the second week will feature a stage over the Mortirolo and the Passo di Foscagno, finishing for the first time at the ski resort of Mottolino above the municipality of Livigno.
For the third week, we’ll have to wait and see if there’s too much snow, but typically, it starts with the Stelvio. From the top of the Stelvio Pass, the riders still have 150 kilometers to go to the finish in Sankt Christina in Gröden. The final week starts with a mountainous stage, and that won’t change. During the penultimate stage, the riders will tackle the daunting Monte Grappa twice, and in Rome, a mass sprint will likely decide the 107th Giro.
Favorites
Without the competition from Mathieu van der Poel and Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar is the clear favorite at the start of this Giro. He also has no competition from Remco Evenepoel or Primoz Roglic. However, Pogacar also aims to compete in the Tour de France and secure the double, so it remains to be seen if he should hold back in Italy. He already has a strong UAE Emirates team to support him, with Rafal Majka and Domen Novak as his climbers.
The biggest challenge may come from last year’s runner-up: Geraint Thomas. The question with him lies mainly with his age: he turns 38 on the penultimate day of this Giro. At INEOS Grenadiers, he will be supported by Thymen Arensman, who finished sixth last year, and Tobias Foss, who showed good form in the Tour of the Alps.
At Decathlon AG2R, Australian climber Ben O’Connor has been performing at a very high level for months. Given his climbing abilities, a podium place in the Giro is certainly within reach, and his time trial skills are also impressive. He finished fourth in the Tour de France and eighth in the Vuelta.
Romain Bardet also has a chance at the overall victory. The beginning of this year wasn’t great for him, but he seems to have found his form since then. He finished fifth in the Tour of the Alps and second in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, so he can play a prominent role in the Giro. At least, that’s the hope of his employer, DSM-Firmenich PostNL.
At BORA-Hansgrohe, they’re saving Primoz Roglic for the Tour de France but have assembled a strong lineup for the Giro: Aleksandr Vlasov, Jai Hindley, Lennard Kämna, and Daniel Felipe Martinez will be ready. Additionally, it will be interesting to see what Antonio Tiberi, Cian Uijtdebroeks, Damiano Caruso, and Juan Pedro Lopez can achieve.
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