GIRO D’ ITALIA

Famously, if not quite accurately, there are 666 arches in the portico lining the road up to the Santurio di San Luca above Bologna. The road the portico overlooks is a steep twisting climb that forms the centrepiece of the autumnal Giro dell’ Emilia. But whereas the arrival of the portico signals the beginning of the end of that particular purgatory, on 11 May the portico will merely mark the end of the beginning of the Giro, as it comes in the last 2km of the opening time trial.

This year’s corsa rosa is hung on three TTs – at the beginning, in the middle and at the end. They total 58km and are thematically similar: each feature a significant climb that take them away from being a rouleur’s simple bread and butter. On stage 1, it’s the Via di San Luca. On stage 9, it’s the 12km final climb in San Marino. On stage 21, in Verona, there is a 4.3km climb to Torricelle in the middle of the 15.6km test. Around the TTs are two things the

Giro does extremely well: medium mountains and high mountains.

The race cuts a rough figure of eight in the top two thirds of the country, with San Marino the only trip abroad. Medium mountains and sprints dominate the lower circle and high mountains the upper. From Bologna, it heads southwest and meets the Tyrennian Sea at Ortobello on stage 3. Stages 4 and 5 head down the coast before stage 6 goes over the south central Apennines to its southernmost point at San Giovanni Rotondo on the Adriatic. Two tricky-looking stages, the San Marino TT and two sprinters’ stages complete the bottom loop. The race’s arrival in Piedmont signals the start of the high mountains and the peloton’s real descent into torment. Cuneo to Pinerolo on stage 12 marks the 70th anniversary of one of Fausto Coppi’s attacks in 1949. Stages 13, 14, 16, 17,19 and 20 range across the high mountains of Italy’s border regions to the north. Highlights include the never-used 2,200m high Lagu Serrù finish on the slopes of the Colle del Nivolet, the Cima Coppi on the 2,619m Gavia halfway through stage 16 (followed by an ascent of the Mortirolo via the hardest approach), the extravagantly beautiful Passo Mendola on stage 17 and the stage 20 mountain finale of Passo Manghen and Monte Avena.

The race heads to Verona for its last act, where ancient porticos, this time on the Verona Arena in the Piazza Bra, will greet the riders at the end of the TT. There’s a statue of the Inferno’s author, Dante, here too. But at least for the Giro peloton, Verona signals their torment is over.