This years route is a repetition of the 2010-edition of the race, which was won by Ivan Basso.
It contains:
56,2 km Individual Time Trial (3 stages)
32,5 km Team Time Trial (1 stage)
8 Flat stages
3 Hilly stages with no uphill finishes
6 Mountain stages with 5 summit finishes


Quintana, Antón and Kelderman seem to be the most feared trio on the mountain tops with riders like Sicard, Hesjedal, Basso, Kruijswijk, Atapuma and Henao ready to challenge them.
A common denominator between these riders is that TT’ing is not their favourite disciplines though Hesjedal and Sicard are better than the others at this discipline.


On the other hand we have strong TT’ers like Cancellara, Rasmussen and Durbridge, who can’t climb and thus won’t affect the GC other than through the TTT.
We do have a few good TT’ers capable of climbing though. Fuglsang and Taaramäe being the most interesting.


With 8 flat stages this could be one of the best GT’s for sprinters in a long time. In spite of that the absolute biggest sprint favourites have decided not to come. That makes for a good opportunity for Farrar, Appolonio, JJ Haedo and Greipel.


A lot of rider can compete for the young riders jersey in the first week or so. After that only Quintana and Kelderman are serious contenders.

1	Maurizio Biondo	Team Selle Italia	10'40
2	Tiago Machado	Nissan	+ 2
3	Fabian Cancellara	Rabobank Cycling Team	+ 3
4	Alex Rasmussen	Volvo - SAS	+ 5
5	Andriy Grivko	Astana Pro Team	+ 6
6	Alexsandr Dyachenko	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
7	Gustav Erik Larsson	Volvo - SAS	+ 7
8	Alfredo Balloni	Team Selle Italia	+ 9
9	Tyler Farrar	Nissan	+ 10
10	Bruno Pires	Team Vodafone	+ 13

1	Tyler Farrar	Nissan	9h29'10
2	Alex Rasmussen	Volvo - SAS	+ 3
3	Gustav Erik Larsson	Volvo - SAS	+ 25
4	Jakob Fuglsang	Volvo - SAS	+ 31
5	Rasmus Quaade	Volvo - SAS	s.t.
6	Sébastien Rosseler	Lotto Belisol Team	s.t.
7	Rafal Majka	Movistar Team	+ 33
8	Rick Flens	Rabobank Cycling Team	s.t.
9	Manuele Boaro	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	+ 34
10	Jérôme Coppel	Team Vodafone	s.t.

Points Jersey: Tyler Farrar, Nissan
Mountain Jersey: Lars Ytting Bak, Volvo - SAS
Young Rider: Rasmus Quaade, Volvo - SAS
Team Classification: Volvo - SAS

4	Jakob Fuglsang	Volvo – SAS	+ 0’31’’
14	Sergio Henao	Team Vodafone	+ 0’36’’
19	Romain Sicard	Euskaltel – Euskadi	+ 0’42’’
21	Igor Antón	Cofidis, le crédit en ligne	+ 0’43’’
23	Fredrik Kessiakoff	Volvo – SAS	+ 0’44’’
24	Rigoberto Urán	Tissot	+ 0’45’’
32	Rein Taaramäe	Team Saxo – Tinkoff	+ 0’50’’
39	John Darwin Atapuma	Colombia – Coldeportes	+ 0’57’’
56	Ivan Basso	Nissan	+ 3’42’’
63	Nairo Quintana	Nissan	+ 3’53’’
65	Wilco Kelderman	Rabobank Cycling Team	+ 3’55’’
131	Ryder Hesjedal	Team ISD – Ferrari	+ 7’39’’
136	Steven Kruijswijk	Rabobank Cycling Team	+ 7’42’’

Stage 1: Demaret (Alstom) / Bille / Gaudin
Stage 2: García (Cofidis) / Ipsen / Rathe
Stage 3: Casar (Orange) / Levarlet / Bissinger
Stage 4: Vermote (Dirk Grepdon...) / Minard / Veikkanen
Stage 5: Rathe (Garmin) / Lima / Hivert

1	Jean-Eudes Demaret	Alstom	21h39'50
2	Gaetan Bille	Crédit Agricole - Belgacom	+ 8
3	Sébastien Minard	Alstom	+ 12
4	Jakob Rathe	Garmin - Sharp	+ 14
5	Jonathan Hivert	Saur - Sojasun	+ 34
6	Steven Tronet	Orange	+ 42
7	Enrico Battaglin	Colnago - CSF Inox	s.t.
8	Jérémy Roy	FDJ - BigMat	s.t.
9	Oscar Santamaria	Club La Santa - Cantabria Infinita	s.t.
10	Tom Slagter	Rabobank Cycling Team	s.t.

Points Jersey: Jakob Rathe, Garmin - Sharp

Mountain Jersey: Julien Vermote, Dirk Grepdon Wanzele - Mercator

Young Rider: Jakob Rathe, Garmin - Sharp

Team Classification: Alstom

Ian Butler wrote:
I guess there's a small chance of the Giro finishing before Thursday?