Cyclists have met a new world champion, October begins, yet the season does not end. On the contrary, it is in full swing and fans are looking forward to the toughest from this year’s edition of the Grand Tours. The Italian Giro offers a battle with many contrasts. A hike to Mount Etna, three time trials and a hugely tiring third week, a challenge for Gerain Thomas or Peter Sagan.
Julian Alaphilippe became the world champion on Sunday and under normal circumstances it would be an event that will close the cycling year. Not so in the crazy year of 2020, so much affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s not even two weeks since Tadej Pogačar achieved a sensational victory at the Tour de France, it was enough to leave the world championship and suddenly there is another big event on the cycling calendar. Giro d’Italia.
And as tennis players grind their teeth in Paris at Roland Garros, moved from the traditional date at the turn of May and June, something similar awaits the world’s best riders in Italy. The Giro is also usually run in May and is the first race of three annual Grand Tours.
This year it will be the second cycling grand slam.
“Usually the weather on Giro improves day by day, we start in the spring and summer is approaching. This year it will be completely the opposite,” he pointed out aptly Briton Simon Yates, one of the favorites for the overall triumph. “I expect difficult conditions and I am mentally prepared for that,” added team leader Mitchelton-Scott.
Mental strength will definitely be needed, but it should not outweigh physical readiness. “The Giro will be the toughest of the three Grand Tours events this year,” said Yates’ team boss Matt White. The Italian race is almost twelve kilometers longer than the Tour, but of course that’s not the main thing.
It is about the diversity of the pink business. Instead of the originally planned start in Hungary, the Giro will start with a time trial in Sicily, where the peloton will be delayed in the following days. And already on Monday, at the end of a challenging mountain stage, he will tread on the volcano Etna. No relaxed start on the plains.
Gradually, the whole caravan will move from the hot south to the cold north. The hilly time trial in the fourteenth stage certainly shuffles the order, after which cyclists enter the Alps. They climb to the 2757-meter-high Stelvia Pass and a detour to France on the proven Izoard. The end of the three-week adventure will be provided by a time trial to Milan.
While the Tour and Vuelta have recently shortened mountain trips to make them more attractive and to show immediate explosiveness, the Giro does not want to submit to new trends. After all, even the stage over the dreaded Stelvio has more than 200 kilometers. In addition, three time trials compared to the only one at this year’s “Old Lady”.
In short, classic cycling.
And while Sicilian La Grande Partenza is accompanied by thirty degrees in weather this weekend, mercury fell below freezing in the Alpine passes at the end of September. People must have been scared of the pictures from Stelvia.
With the approaching winter, snow drifts are also waiting at other transit points, and it is possible that the Gira route will change as you go.
The biggest favorite of the race is Geraint Thomas and according to the assumptions, the 34-year-old Welshman should fight a fight with the British compatriot Yates. The winner of the previous year’s Tour has a strong part of the Ineos team at hand, who are eager to repair the failed French tour.
The former Sky did not take Thomas or Chris Froome, but defense attorney Egan Bernal was a long way from last year’s form. At Giru, the ambitious stable wants to win its second title from this race (Froome won in 2018). Thomas will drive the Giro for the fourth time and is still waiting for a big Italian result.
The highest places should also be fought by Jakob Fuglsang from Astana, who has a luxury domesticist Miguel Ángel López, home Vincenzo Nibali from Trek, Steven Kruijswijk from the Jumbo-Visma team or Ilnur Zakarin, a partner of the only Czech participant Josef Černý from the CCC stable.
The debut on Giro is then looking for the Slovak phenomenon Peter Sagan and he will also want to make a taste of the special Tour. He himself claimed that he did not drive badly in France, but he could not win at any stage and for the first time he came to Paris without a green jersey for the champion of the points competition.
How will he manage the second three-week event in a short sequence? “I’ll try to win some stages and see how it goes in the points competition.” he declared Sagan before the start of the race. Elia Viviani, Arnaud Démare, Michael Matthews and Fernando Gaviria should fight him in the battle for the purple jersey.
Of course, even Giru will not avoid measures against the spread of coronavirus, cyclists will recreate a closed bubble. However, there will be no strict rule that two positive cases a week means the end of the whole team. Like on the Tour, where fortunately the application didn’t have to happen.
“Life isn’t about waiting for a storm to come. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” paraphrased Italians in Mahatma Gandhi’s racing manual. They are not afraid of coronavirus, but they still ask fans to use veils.
The Tour reached the finish line, absolutely decisive for the economy of cycling, and the experts awarded it superlatives. What will this year’s Giro be like and who will wear the “maglia rosa” jersey? Lawyer Richard Carapaz is not in Italy, the throne is free.
The inaugural time trial from Monreale to Palermo will start shortly after one o’clock today and you can watch it live on Eurosport 2.
Introductory presentation of Gira in the temple of ancient Segesta and presentation of jerseys. Pink for the overall winner, purple for the first man of the points competition, blue for the best climber and white for the leader of riders under 25:
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