A nice long-ish prologue starts us off in Gelderland, being largely straight and very flat, with long straights and little of technical difficulty apart from a few 90 degree turns, we should see the pure power riders excel here.

The first road stage is a flat affair, taking us in a rather loopy route from Arnhem to nearby Nijmegen, including the first categorised climb of the Giro, the 4th category Berg en Dal. A circuit finish will inevitably end in a sprint.

Stage 3 is the exact opposite of Stage 2, returning to Arnhem from Nijmegen but this time heading out to the east, not that that makes much difference to the terrain, mind: another bunch sprint expected. Not too many difficulties in the run-in today either, so we can hope to leave the Netherlands relatively crash-free, but there will inevitably be the usual bit of first-week nerves in the peloton.

Stage 4 sees us transfer to the very south Italy after a rest day and wind our way up the Tyrrhenean coast to Praia a Mare, with some interesting little bumps towards the end of the stage making this an interesting finale with good opportunities for the late attacker. The sprinters' teams will have to marshal this one effectively to try and rein in attackers, especially given the little ramp 8km from home that stretches to 18% in a couple of places.

Stage 5 should come down to a sprint, but again it's not pan-flat and could throw up some surprises. The run in to the finish at Benevento is the same used in Stage 18 of the 2009 Giro, which was won by Michele Scarponi ahead of Félix Cárdenas from the break, however with the sprinters firing on all cylinders in the first week a repeat is unlikely.

Stage 6 sees, astonishingly, the penultimate mountain-top finish of the race (not counting the MTT), and it's a relatively easy one at that, with the final climb containing several flat sections and very rarely rising above 7%. Nevertheless it's an opportunity the climbers should seize, with uncertainty over how many mountains there will actually be left for them to climb at the end of the race they need to make every opportunity count. We should see here if any of the contenders hasn't quite got their form peak right.

A transitional stage takes us up northwards for what will presumably be another bunch sprint. However the run-in in Foligno is tricky, with two sharp bends inside 2kms to go. The trains will have to be organised and well-drilled to deal with this finish and deliver their sprinter in the optimum position

Sterrato! Although don't go expecting 2010 Montalcino miracles, for this is only one section, albeit a fairly lengthy 6km and coming on what should be a pretty decisive climb. The first 2.5km or so average around 9% before we get onto the sterrato so the peloton should be fairly strung out, and who knows what will happen after that. Hopefully we will see some GC action with Nibbles and the like, before a little ramp at the finish offers a final opportunity to steal some valuable seconds before the time trial.

The second stage of the second weekend is one of the most important in the whole race - the second time trial. 40km in length over rolling terrain (although I think the profile exaggerates it somewhat, the climb to Panzano only has an elevation difference of less than 200m) means we could see some fairly sizeable gaps and a shakeup of the GC before we head off up north for the second week. After the end of the first week and nine varied stages, we probably won't really know who will win the Giro, but there's plenty of opportunities to lose the Giro, and all the GC guys will have to be on their guard the whole time.