Giro d'Italia

The best team in the 2017 Giro d’Italia has completely changed its approach and goals for the 101st edition of the ‘Corsa Rosa’. A squad full of youngsters and plenty of Latin American talent will form the eight-man squad -it’s the first Grand Tour held after the team reduction imposed by the sport’s governing body as of 2018- of a Movistar Team which has claimed at least one stage victory for the last eight years – and even more resounding success.

The 2018 Giro will start with a big change, as the race will hold its Big Start out of Europe’s borders for the first time ever in a Grand Tour -the Vuelta having departed from the Canary Islands, part of Spain, in the late 1980s-. Israel will be the venue for the opening three stages, starting with a technical, hilly ITT -not a prologue, but stage one proper- almost 10km long in Jerusalem (Friday 4th May) and two routes suited for sprinters: one along the coast, from Haifa to Tel Aviv (Saturday 5th) and a southbound stage three to Eilat (Sunday 6th) covering almost 230km.

The race will profit from its first rest day to fly to Sicily, where three more stages -nowhere near as flat as the previous ones- will be completed before reaching mainland Italy. Tuesday 8th will see riders finishing in Caltagirone (198km), with a final kilometer ramping up to 13% and a second half to stage four featuring almost no flat roads. Wednesday 9th will bring another uphill finish more typical in Tirreno than in the Giro, at Santa Ninfa (12%), after three gentler yet longer categorized climbs. Finally, Thursday 10th will mark the first real mountain stage in the Etna (Cat-1), almost 40km uphill with no long interruptions and a consistent, steep final 15km at 6.5% average.

Back to the continent with an easier finish at Praia a Mare (Friday 11th), the second weekend of this year’s Giro will take the race to the long, yet not-so-tough climb of Montevergine (Cat-1; 17km at around 5%), on Saturday 12th, and the second high-mountain finish of the route in the Appennines, at Gran Sasso (Sunday 13th). The final climb is divided into the ‘easier’ first half to Calascio (Cat-2; 14km at 6%) and the tough finishing sector -up to 13%- towards Campo Imperatore (Cat-1).

Week two of this year’s Giro, from southwest to northeast Italy, will offer the sprinters a good share of chances: three different opportunities, with a long, lumpy route to Gualdo Tadino (Tuesday 15th); an ‘unconfortable’ circuit finish in Imola (Thursday 17th); and a more suited, flatter day in Nervesa (Friday 18th). Between all those, a tricky finish in Osimo (Wednesday 16th) will feature lots of small ramps in the finale, after the previous, demanding selection created by the ‘muro’ of Filottrano -not rated; already covered in this year’s Tirreno, as a tribute to the late Michele Scarponi-.

The third weekend of the race will see the peloton tackling the most iconic, grueling climbs in this year’s Giro. Stage 14 (Saturday 19th) will witness the return of the legendary Monte Zoncolan (Cat-1; 10.1km, 11.5% avg.), with its terrifying 4km halfway through at 15% and maximum slopes at 22%. Sunday 20th will be less of a monstruous day, yet with three Cat-2 climbs pretty much together: Tre Croci, Sant’Antonio and Costalissoio, before the finish in Sappada.

A third, final rest will preceed the second individual time trial, feared by the climbers and loved by the specialists: 34.2km, mostly flat and with only one short climb in its second half, between Trento and Rovereto (Tuesday 22nd). After that, and following a classic breakaway stage on Giro’s week three, finishing at Iseo (155km, Wednesday 23rd), the race will go for its trio of decisive mountain stages, all of them in the western Alps, before finishing in Rome.

On Thursday 24th, a long (14km), steady (almost 7% avg.) climb to Pratonevoso, end of a one-climb stage eighteen comprising almost 200km. Friday 25th will bring arguably the Queen stage of the race if we exclusively look at the names of the climbs covered: four of them, yet not really close to each other, with the Colle del Lys (Ca-2), the Colle delle Finestre (Cima Coppi; 8km on gravel roads), Sestriere (Cat-3) and the finish atop the Jafferau (Cat-1). Finally, on Saturday 26th, the race will be decided with an impressive chain of ascents that could award it the title of Queen if it wasn’t for the previous one. At the end of the 214km stage 20, a final dose of non-stop climbing through Tsecore (Cat-1), Saint Pantaléon (Cat-1) and the final mountain-top finish in Cervinia (Cat-1).