Giro d'Italia

The inclusion of two relatively long ITTs -38km towards Perugia, with a sting at the end, on day seven (Friday 10th); 31km, completely flat, next to the Lago di Garda, on stage fourteen (Saturday 17th)- is the main feature of a Giro d’Italia which doesn’t otherwise miss the essence from previous years in its 107th edition.

The race will kick off from Turin (Saturday 4th), already with an interesting route, over the Colle Superga (Cat-3), Maddalena (Cat-2) and the final kick up San Vito all into the second half of the route. A day later, no less than a mountain-top finish on stage two (Sunday 5th), climbing Oropa (Cat-1) after a quite hilly final 70km.

The Movistar Team, somewhat ‘divided’ in its roster configuration for this year’s Giro with climbers and a ‘treno’ set-up for Fernando Gaviria, will have its opening three sprint chances in Fossano (Monday 6th), Andora (Tuesday 7th) and Lucca (Wednesday 8th). After those, the peloton will find ‘sterrato’ (Thursday 9th): nothing crazy, just three sectors for about ten kilometers, the last section 16km from the finish in Rapolano Terme.

After the first time trial will come the second mountain-top finish (Saturday 11th), over the long -almost 15km- and steady (7%) Prati di Tivo. Following a long stage nine, for breakaways or sprinters, in Napoli (Sunday 12th) and the first rest day, we will tackle the third ‘arrivo in salita’: Bocca della Selva (Tuesday 14th), another long one at 18km on Einer Rubio’s adoptive soil, near Benevento.

Before the third weekend of racing, the riders will find two brandnew sprint opportunities -Francavilla al Mare (Wednesday 15th) and Cento (Friday 17th)- and a likely breakaway day -Fano (Thursday 16th), one of those typically Tirreno-like stages in the hills- towards the second TT in the Garda…

… And the real ‘tappone’ in this year’s Giro (Sunday 19th). 220km, 5,600m elevation gain -we had not seen figures like this in a while!-, San Zeno (Cat-2) to open things up, Mortirolo (Cat-1) as main course and Foscagno (Cat-1) + Mottolino (Cat-1) as a brutal dessert. What will come after the second rest day (stage 16, Tuesday 21st) isn’t far from there: 206km with Eira and Foscagno from the get-go; Umbrail (Cima Coppi) afterwards; an endless descent; and the decisive Pinei (Cat-1) + Santa Cristina (Cat-2, finish).

With no respite whatsoever, the tired bunch will face a chain of climbs on Wednesday 22nd: Sella (Cat-2), Rolle (Cat-1), Gobbera (Cat-3) and 2x the Passo Brocon (Cat-2 + Cat-1) -and so, in just three days, almost 14,000m elevation would have been overcome-. After a flat stage to Padova (Thursday 23rd) and a quite open, hilly day towards Sappada (Friday 24th), we will get to showdown time (Saturday 25th): two ascents of the brutal Monte Grappa (18km at 8%) before descending to Bassano and ‘setting sail’ towards Rome.