RACE OF THE CENTURY
The Tour de France always gets more attention but is the 100th Giro d’Italia the Grand Tour to watch in 2017?
How lonely must Chris Froome be feeling right now, what with everybody giving him the swerve?
Okay, so we’re being facetious - by all accounts he’s a nice bloke. We’re really just talking in a sporting sense. You see, his pre-eminence at the Tour de France (three yellow jerseys and counting) means that his established rivals - Alberto Contador aside - don’t much fancy squaring up against him when the race rolls out from Düsseldorf in July. Okay, so Romain Bardet, (a distant) second last year will be leading the French resistance, a slimline Richie Porte will be crossing everything in the hope of stringing 21 incident-free days together for the first time, and Nairo Quintana is also planning on being there. The Colombian, however, is also racing the Giro d’Italia and the odds of him being a genuine threat aren’t high, given nobody has done the double since an artificially enhanced Marco Pantani in 1998 (though if anyone can do it, diesel-engined Quintana is the man).
The Giro, in fact, is where the tastiest general classification fight of 2017 may well happen. Sure, the Vuelta a España has been full of entertainment recently but it’s never more than a secondary objective for the best. Not so the Giro, the first Grand Tour of the year and one where all the contenders enter on an equal footing, with fuel in the tank and fire in the belly. Quintana is joined by a starry cast, including two-time winner Vincenzo Nibali, his old Astana teammate and compatriot, Fabio Aru, last year’s nearly man Steven Kruijswijk, talented British twins Adam and Simon Yates, 2015 podium Mikel Landa, unknown quantity Rohan Dennis, as well as outside bets Thibaut Pinot, Bauke Mollema, Rafa¯ Majka and Ilnur Zakarin.
The race deserves such a cast too, given it’s the 100th edition. A celebration of Italy, as well of the stars that have illuminated its history, 17 of its 21 regions are visited - including both of its major islands, Sardinia and Sicily.
Race director Mauro Vegni has concocted a signature barbaric affair; the first summit finish arrives early on stage 4, with a climb up Sicily’s Mount Etna; the next, on stage 9, and the mighty, near-30km ascent of Blockhaus. A decisive-looking short, flat stage that ends with an 11.8km mountain climb to Oropa (where Pantani won in 1999) stands in contrast to some beastly stages, notably stage 16’s 227km to Bormio, which climbs the 2758m Passo dello Stelvio twice. The storied Stelvio’s inclusion is always a punt by Vegni; in 2013, heavy snow forced a whole new route to be written at the last minute, and in 2014, snow meant racing on its descent was neutralised.
The Stelvio has a place in the Giro but its altitude means it comes with risks at this time of year. Let’s hope it’s the riders making headlines this year, rather than the mountains, because this has the ingredients to be one the best tussles in years.
The Giro, in fact, is where the tastiest general classification fight of 2017 is likely to happen