/ GIRO D'ITALI A
ESTABLISHED 1909 EDITIONS 104
Of the three grand tours, the Giro d’Italia has been the most ambitious in terms of looking beyond its home country’s borders. The controversial 2018 grande partenza in Israel was scheduled to be followed up by an equally controversial grande partenza last year in Hungary. However, the covid-19 crisis has narrowed all of our horizons a little, and the postponed corsa rosa was forced to reconfigure in 2020 at least. And 2021 will be no different, as the race will kick off in Sicily for several stages on the island and then in the south, before heading north for its usual denouement in the high mountains.
Paradoxically, given the Giro’s proclivity for foreign adventures, of the three grand tours it is the one that is most tied up in the geographic integrity of its home country. The Tour de France celebrates Frenchness and French culture, but the Giro is an expression of Italian unity, and historically the race has derived meaning from that fact. The first Giro d’Italia after World War Two, in 1946, was an overt expression of national togetherness and reconstruction. The Italian newspaper L’Unità marketed the race as the “Giro della Rinascita” - the Giro of renewal, as it was raced against the backdrop of a shattered country rebuilding itself. There was a similar ambition last year. Initially the race was postponed from its usual early season slot as Italy suffered one of the worst and earliest covid19 outbreaks in Europe. The fact that the race took place at all was miracle enough, and when it finally took place in October it was a galvanising expression of a country struggling to achieve some semblance of normality again.
The other thing that the Giro celebrates well is its own history. No climb is ever included without reference to the great battles that have occurred on its slopes in Giri of yore - Blockhaus is inseparable from the Merckx story, while the Fausto Coppi-Gino Bartali rivalry of the 1940s and 1950s told the story of Italy itself, with all its contradictions and differences.
With the Tour tilting a little towards the time triallists in 2021, the Giro is attracting those riders who are vulnerable in the long individual tests. Thibaut Pinot, more at home on the steep climbs and cool temperatures of Italy in May, will avoid the glare of the July sun and his home fans by reigniting his love affair with the Giro. Vincenzo Nibali will relish the home start in Sicily in what must be a final attempt at winning a third pink jersey. Simon Yates and Emanuel Buchmann are on the provisional start list. Though the 2020 race, anomalous in almost every way, favoured the time triallists and was decided in a final-day decider against the clock, the Giro traditionally favours the climbers, with a menu of iconic and historic climbs to choose from. But it’s also full of traps for the unwary. The climbing always starts early, and the middle stages up Italy’s spine are attritional and tough. But the biggest goal of the 2021 Giro will be as close to a return to normality as possible.