The Race
The 101st Giro D’Italia, the first Grand Tour of the year and one of the most entertaining races which some shocks over the past few editions.
The Route
An attacking one, with the amount of time trialling kilometres 69.1 in 2017 to 44.2 kilometres this year, although the race’s two-time trials – the first to begin the race in Jerusalem today and the second on Stage 16 to begin the third week after a rest day – will play a pivotal role with the second being pan flat at coming late in the day.
There are six summit finishes and eight days in the mountains – two with challenging finales – including the last three stages after the time trials, so pure climbers will have a fantastic shot at taking the pink jersey this year. The key finish for many is the ascent of the Monte Zoncolan, which averages 11.9% for 10 kilometres – that comes on Stage 14, Saturday the 19th .
The Big Four
The build-up has mainly focused around two riders, both of whom between them won all three Grand Tours last year.
Chris Froome has had the nasty spectre of a serious UCI case hanging over his head since last December when he was found to have double the allowed level of a legal asthma drug in his urine after a test at last year's Vuelta a Espana.
He’s not changed this plan to ride the Giro and attempt to enter into a number of record books too, as he would be one of a few riders to have won all three Grand Tours, and also holding them at the same time to boot, and he’s not for turning now at this late stage.
We haven’t seen an awful lot of him, but when leading Sky for the first time this at the Tour of the Alps he showed much better form when fourth overall with a strong set of finishes where he was no worse than 10th. Last year in a bid for the Tour-Vuelta double he held his peak back and after what must have been a long 12 weeks it’s no surprise if he’s done the same here. The big issue for him is that for once he has the two-sided challenge of climbers who can match him uphill and a rial who can take time out of him in the shape of Tom Dumoulin.
Dumoulin won last year despite the famed antics of whom attacked and when bowel troubles came, but this year there is the worry of just how much form he has to show. Mechanicals and crashes blighted the early part of his season, but he looked better for a long training block at altitude with his 15th in Liege-Bastogne Liege. We will learn a lot about where he’s at in the opening time trial and the first day but in his favour is the improved team Sunweb have, with the prodigious Sam Ooomen likely to be second in command alongside Laurens ten Dam.
Thibaut Pinot took a stage alongside going fourth last year before he couldn’t follow that up at the Tour. He’s going for the assume again but has had a much lighter schedule this time around – with only 15 racedays until Friday – and he was impressive in winning the Tour of the Alps. The whole of the Groupeama-FDJ is at his service and they worked well at the Alps, so the worry for Pinot is high temperatures and underperforming in the time trial, where he struggled last year (*surprisingly given he’s the former French TT Champion).
The fourth of the ‘big four’ and perhaps the most explosive, is Astana’s Miguel Angel Lopez. The brilliant Colombian only just turned 24 and has already made and impact at Grand Tours, taking two stages on his way to eighth in the Giro, and he’s carried on much of that form into this season as well, taking the queen stage of the Tour of the Alps to Alpe di Pampeago, finishing third overall, and he finished second at the Tour of Oman to Astana teammate Alexey Lutsenko.
Astana have the race’s strongest team without question, with Pello Bilbao, Jan Hirt, Tanel Kangert, Andrey Zeits, Luis Leon Sanchez and Davide Villella all lining up. They took three of the first 15 general classification spots at the Tour of the Alps with both Sanchez and Bilbao winning stages; The worry is how much time he loses against the clock in the time trial.
Other Contenders
British fans should keep a close eye on Mitchelton-Scott’s Simon Yates. Very unlucky not to win Paris-Nice, he was fourth at the Volta Catalunya. The winner of the white jersey at the Tour last year, he looks to be hitting his peak. Fabio Aru often peaks at Grand Tours and the UAE Emirates leader is already a Grand Tour winner, having taken the 2014 Vuelta, and he’s gone close on other occasions before. His showing at the Tour of the Alps was encouraging.
Michael Woods was seventh at the Vuelta and the late boomer should enough the steeper slopes along with George Bennet, fifth for Lotto-Jumbo at the Tour of the Alps after being hit by a car.
Sprints
There are technically seven ‘flat’ stages but many of them have late hills which will make the chase hard for the leadout trains late on, so we could see some surprise winners. That said, Quick-Step’s Elia Viviani is a strong favourite for the points classification and Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) took four podiums in the race last year. Danny Van Poppel (Lotto-Jumbo), Jakub Mareczko (Wilier Triestina), Andrea Guardini (Bardiani-CSF), and Niccolo Bonifazio (Bahrain-Merida) will also be contending for the bunch kicks. https://twitter.com/giroditalia/status/991301365740789760
