This year will be 25 years since the last time a cyclist, a champion, a climber, a failed genius like Marco Pantani, managed to win the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France in the same year, in a matter of three months. Indurain did it before in 1992 and 1993. It is a major challenge that almost none of the favorites to wear the yellow jersey in Paris dare.
The whole peloton is looking forward to Pogacar and Vingegaard seeing each other again in the Pyrenees and the Alps. The Slovenian and the Dane, obsessed with their duel, will not turn looking for the impossible coppia. Hence, the Giro tries to make eyes at the other great three-week cyclists, that there are, and that they are aware that in France they have it raw… for now. Evenepoel, winner of the Vuelta, the first, with his arcobaleno jersey, as the Italians call it, but also Arensman, who will be in the Ineos, Kelderman, who will ride in the Jumbo, Carapaz, now in the Education First, and the Spanish Juan Ayuso, who is still in the UAE but who knows that he must look for his opportunities without coinciding with Pogacar.
For all of them, the Giro has dived into the classic routes in 2023 to achieve a race that is as balanced as possible. The three time trial stages, totaling 70 kilometres, are a perfect hook to make a difference. Nothing to do with the 26.6 fight against the clock that the last edition had, which was won by the Australian Jai Hindley (Bora) with a single attack in the Marmolada.
But the corsa rosa cannot forget the mountains, her specialty, fearsome and beautiful, with six well-distributed mountain stages: two in the first week (Lago Laceno, Gran Sasso), one in the second (Crans Montana) and three in the third (Monte Bondone, Val di Zorlo and Tre Cime de Lavaredo).
In the midst of the search for new elements, mythical ports such as Mortirolo, Zoncolan, Pordoi, Marmolada, Giau or Stelvio are missing. But the penultimate stage has its history as it will be a time trial climb to Monte Lussari, along a road that has not yet been climbed to a fairytale town. The port, very hard, is seven km with a drop of almost 12%. There will be no teams or strategies to hide behind on your 22% ramps.
The race will start on May 6 from Fossacesia Marina, in Abruzzo, with the first of three individual time trials and will finish in Rome on the 28th of the same month. It is the third time in the 21st century that the test ends in the capital, after those of 2018 and 2009.
