Welcome to the route presentation of the Giro d'Italia, the first Grand Tour of the year and always a stunner. This edition is no different - I'd love to summarise it for you right now, but you should probably just see for yourself. What a race we have coming this April!
Week One: A little something for everyone
For the third year running the South of Italy hosts the Grande Partenza in what must soon mean a civil war, this time it's a 4km prologue in the wonderful city of Reggio Calabria, home of the Fatamorgana, toe of the boot of mainland Italy, and the 100th most populated city in Europe! The riders will be able to take a good look across the Strait of Messina - but it'll take a while to get there themselves. Instead the race quickly looks North with a flat stage up the coast to Amantea in a stage which will be one for the sprinters - but watch out for coastal winds! The sprinters may only have one chance to grab pink, as Stage 3 is a lumpy affair with an undulating uphill finale including 500m at 8.8% just outside the flamme rouge - though the finish itself is but a false flat. A chance for the tougher sprinters and the opportunist puncheurs to duke it out. Stage 4 can once again be defined as lumpy, but though there may be tired legs among their number it's no doubt one for the sprinters with a long flat run-in to the finish. We continue our way north towards the Apennines on Stage 5 with a mercifully short flat stage, given what is to come.
Stage 6 is an ugly affair for the more gravitationally-inclined riders, a 216km trek up the eastern Apennines reminiscent of an Ardennes classic, avoiding any major mountain passes but gaining over 4000m of elevation with many tough climbs, this is a big-red-circle trap stage for GC contenders to watch out for and a chance for opportunists for both stage and GC to make their mark. More likely to be the stage hunters, though, as the GC men will also have circled Stage 7's finish on Blockhaus (above), the 19km behemoth averaging 8.2% and coming after a very difficult precursor climb too. A huge marker of the GC pecking order to end our first week.
Week Two: Building to explosion
And a huge marker to start our second week as well, as no sooner have the climbers made their impression as the stage racers get to make theirs with the second and final flat ITT of the race, this one totalling 42km and surely seeing some big gaps. After the excitement of the last few days it's time for a sprint in beautiful Tuscany into Livorno. We begin to head south again as Stage 10 is an uphill finish in Orvieto, with slopes up to 6% in the final kilometres, after a rolling but not too difficult stage including some white roads.
Stage 11 is short and finishes at Montevergine di Mercogliano, a mountain town known for its beautiful Sanctuary of Montevergine. It's a 14.5km climb averaging 5%, so not the hardest in the world and hard to tell if it'll be a GC truce or a chance for those needing time to go on the offensive. They can probably afford to, as Stage 12 is a flat, albeit long, stage which has some funny business in the final kilometres but should really be a day for the sprinters. It's almost completely along the western coastline as we head south again, and so crosswinds are a heavy possibility.
Stage 13 though, is where we finally come full circle from our start in Reggio - we're now across the Strait from where we started two weeks ago, and it's two times up the feared Mount Etna for us. The first time tops out with 78km to go and is taken from Fiumefreddo on the north-east side, an exhausting 29km averaging 5% but with long sections harder than that. The finishing ascent is from the south, officially 32km at 4.8% but the final 20km are at over 6% and there are prolonged sections at 8 or 9% in the final third. Not the steepest climbs this Giro has to offer, but absolute exhausting and if you crack early you will lose a lot of time. Three times is the charm though, and Stage 14 gives us one more go up the Montebello, this one is in the form of a 14.3km individual time trial to end our second week.
Week Three: Who can conquer the Alps?
A long transfer north to Piedmont for a rather rude Stage 15 - a sprint stage, you might think, but in the first half the riders will have to deal with the Colle del Lys (14.8km @ 6.5%), the Colle della Dieta (10.4km @ 7%) and the climb of Sant'Ignazio (5.5km @ .5%) before a flat final 100km into Vercelli. Depending which sprinters attend the race and how they are feeling, this could be one for the breakaway.
Stage 16 is very cool indeed - a tribute to the Giro di Lombardia, with the riders taking on the climbs of the Colma di Sormano (12.9km @ 6.7%), Madonna del Ghisallo (5.9km @ 4.3%) and Maisano (5km @ 5.7%) in the final 60km, finishing at Lake Pusiano. A sprint stage from Lecco to Iseo, two classic Giro haunts on the egde of the Alps, signals the end of life as we knew it, with three mega days in the high mountains to take us home.
It's hard to define one of these as the Queen Stage, but it's Stage 18 that contains the Cima Coppi as we take on the famed Passo Gavia, an absolute icon of this race and cycling in general and a monster pass - its final 43km averaging 5%, the final 17km averaging 7.8%, and many kilometres towards the top in excess of 10%. You know the deal. The Gavia is positioned for a variety of classic combos, this time it's paired with the climb to Bormio 2000 - 9.1km averaging 7.9% is a tough finish in its own right, when paired with the Gavia it's a truly fearsome duo. Just 109km, this stage is all business and should be a classic.
Stage 19 is even shorter at 105km but packing in four major climbs - Vertriolo Treme (17.1km @ 5.8%), the colossal Passo Manghen (23.3km @ 7.1%), and the final combo of the Passo Pampeago (20.2km @ 5.9% with the final 6km averaging a brutal 11%!) and the arrival at the Passo Lavaze (6.2km at 8.5%). A short but explosive penultimate mountain stage will be a proper battle.
Finally, much as we did last year, we take in almost all of the best climbs the stunning Dolemites have to offer. You already know I'm talking Fedaia, I'm talking Giau (9.5km @ 9.2%), I'm talking Pordoi (13.2km @ 6.1%), I'm talking so much more. However, this time instead of the finish at Tre Cime di Lavaredo it's on the Passo Sella, a nippy 5.5km averaging 7.7%, but in close proximity to the ascent of Pordoi and after a day with over 6000m of climbing across seven categories climbs in just 148km - what a package! The three stages are barely 360km put together, but contain over 14600m of elevation gain. Alpine stages don't have to be long to be epic when there's this many classic passes and brutal slopes packed into them at the end of a long three weeks.
The final stage also keeps it short and sweet with a 128km ride into beautiful Venice for a final chance for the sprinters, who may have anywhere between 5 and 9 chances depending how the stages are ridden really! So perhaps the GT this year that best suits some kind of sprinter - especially a tougher one - to gain the points classification.
8 Flat
3 Hilly (3 HTF)
2 Medium Mountain (1MTF)
5 Mountain (5MTF)
2 Flat ITT (46km total)
1 MTT (14km)
Edited by Fabianski on 14-07-2023 09:50
As a neutral this might the best GT out of the three, but unfortunately I'm not a neutral anymore so this will definitely be a hard decision in picking a the race for Pogacar.
