We parted with the Marmolada and with Alessandro Covi's feat. We left with Hindley's attack on Carapaz, made possible by the valuable work of Kämna. We left with the Verona time trial and the tribute to Vincenzo Nibali, the Shark of Messina.
A year has already passed since the 105th edition of Tour of Italy and Saturday we start again: nothing "incipits” abroad for the Corsa Rosa number 106, the twenty-one stages will take place almost entirely in Italy, with the exception of the second part of the thirteenth stage and the first part of the fourteenth, which will wind along Swiss roads.
Timeline
As already mentioned, it starts on Saturday 6 May from Abruzzo, in Fossacesia Marina, while the epilogue will be in the Eternal City, in a wonderful final catwalk dedicated to sprinters, on Sunday 28 May. In these twenty-three days (two off) the 176 athletes at the start will have to cover 3.489,2 kilometers (39,6 more than last year) and 51.400 meters of elevation gain (820 more).
There will be several opportunities for sprinters, including the one who holds the record for stage wins in the Tour de France like Eddy Merckx, Mark Cavendish. Among the chances certainly include the second stage and the seventeenth (for those who will pass the first four mountain stages unscathed).
There are also many opportunities for the breakaways of the day, with moving stages where a close fight is expected between the group and the men in the break, such as for example in the fifth stage (Atripalda-Salerno) which immediately after the start presents a Mountain Grand Prix (GPM) third category which can put sprinters in difficulty. Other fractions worthy of an escape could be the fifteenth and eighteenth (Seregno-Bergamo and Oderzo-Val di Zoldo), which shouldn't see major clashes at the top, above all because both act as the eve of stage 16 and 19, fundamental.
We finally get to the soul of cycling, the big mountains. Six stages are considered mountainous, but I think only four of them will make the difference in the highest parts of the standings. The two that I leave aside are just the fifteenth and eighteenth (although I fear they may prove me wrong!).
The first mountain stage, number 7, is interesting precisely because it is the first: it is the Apennine fraction that takes the runners from Capua to Campo Imperatore, on the Gran Sasso d'Italia. This last climb, long but with more than pedalable slopes (13,5 kilometers at 6,0%) and which flattens almost completely at -5 from the finish, will certainly not tell us who will win the Giro, but it will tell a lot about who does not he will win it.
Now we come to the three queens: Borgofranco d'Ivrea – Crans-Montana (13) with three GPMs all in the first category; Sabbio Chiese – Monte Bondone (16) with five GPMs, the first and last of which in the first category; finally, the real Queen, Longarone – Rifugio Auronzo (19), below the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, with five GPMs, three of which in the first category and the rest in the second category, just for resting.
After the 183 kilometers and 5.400 meters of elevation gain on Friday, here we are at the last time trial on Saturday, with the first 11 kilometers on the flat and the climb to Monte Lussari in Friuli-Venezia Giulia: 7 kilometers of pure suffering with an average gradient of 12,1% and two peaks of 22%. In short, we don't know how that fateful day will arrive in terms of standings, but probably a lot will be decided in Tarvisio.
Not that the other time trials are to be underestimated: a real one chronoman it can do a lot of harm to pure climbers both in the first stage (19,6 flat kilometres) and in the ninth, which includes 35 kilometers in absolute plains.
Protagonists
Let's start with the absolute leading duo: Remco Evenepoel, reigning world champion and for this nicknamed "King Remco", and the Slovenian of Jumbo Visma Primois Roglic.
The Belgian born in 2000, who has been wearing the rainbow jersey since his victory in the Australian world championship – after having also won the Vuelta a España – began the season by taking the UAE Tour classification and second Liège-Bastogne-Liège of his career, repeating the result of 2022. Winning the Corsa Rosa would also mean having two great laps on the bulletin board at the age of 23.
Another age for Primoz Roglic, born in 89, who no longer has his entire career ahead of him and in the grand tours he has always shown that he is not fully up to par (except for the Vuelta which he won continuously from 2019 to 2021, but the Spanish race is very different from both the Tour and the Giro). Primoz has no time to waste and the premises this year they put it slightly ahead of everyone in these days preceding the first stage. The Slovenian has already brought home the Tirreno-Adriatico, demonstrating that he has a feeling for the Apennines, and the Tour of Catalonia, where he was clearly behind King Remco himself.
Through the Vuelta Ciclista a Catalunya we connect to the "Italians" theme: in the second stage he had "thrown his glasses" (a distinctive gesture of his) Julius Ciccone, who unfortunately tested positive for Covid and will have to miss the appointment of the year. There is some regret above all because the Abruzzese from Trek seemed in great shape for a good placement in the General or for the Maglia Azzurra. Always for the climbers classification, you have to take into consideration Lorenzo Fortunato, winner of the last climb on the Zoncolan and fresh leader of the General Classification at the Vuelta Asturias.
Also Goofy Ganna he will be part of the Ineos super cast and will have two time trials available, the first of which could also give him the Maglia Rosa on Saturday.
For the general classification, however, the few hopes are placed in Caruso e Well I live. Damiacar, as he's called on Instagram, will certainly have a more competitive team behind him than Domenico's Israel, who once again found a home in extremis this year. Also Buja's bull, Jonathan Milan, will be in support of the four points of the Bahrain Victorious (Caruso, Buitrago, Haig and Mäder), but will certainly have the opportunity to have his say in some stages.
To conclude, I mention some possible outsiders, starting from a team that is in any case very scary and should almost be flanked by the Roglic-Evenepoel duo: the Ineos Grenadiers line up both geoghegan hart (that he has already won a Giro) yes Arensmann, looking for confirmation after so many "perhaps". Two other names to keep an eye on are Vlasov for the Bora and Almeida for the UAE.
We draw conclusions
We had already talked about the Giro, stating that his Pink was fading slightly, unlike an increasingly bright and lively Yellow in France. It is true that Also this year we will not have Pogacar or Van Aert, perhaps the greatest exponents of cycling today, we will not have Van Der Poel (but we saw him on our roads last year) nor Vingegaard, the only one capable of interrupting Slovenian supremacy in the Tour.
All this is absolutely true, but we haven't seen a Giro like this for a long time: there is the world champion's jersey, there is Primoz Roglic, there is Cavendish, there are Pippo Ganna and Milan (both gold at the Tokyo Olympics on track), there is Tobias Foss who is the champion of the world time trial. Furthermore, the route promises many emotions and twists because it's not hard, it's very hard.
In short, Rcs Sport has finally given us a Corsa worthy of its name and Rosa is really being reborn.
Article Our little guide to the Giro d'Italia 106 From Sports born.
