Giro boasts a wide-open field
DEBUT: CLOSE ATTENTION ON DUTCH ROOKIE VAN DER POEL
The Giro d’Italia peloton raced out of Heroes’ Square in Budapest yesterday before switching to Sicily next week for a mountainous 21-stage adventure that culminates in a time-trial showdown in Verona on 29 May.
Starting with three days of scenic rides in Hungary with a hilltop citadel finish on day one, the battle for the leader’s pink jersey will rage across 3 446km of Italy’s peaks and plains with often decisive changeable weather conditions to contend with.
Swashbuckling Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel makes his Giro debut and is tipped to upset the sprint pack, led by British ace Mark Cavendish, to don the jersey first after stage one.
Hungary had been scheduled to host the start of the Giro in 2020 but that year’s race was postponed until October due to the pandemic and held entirely within Italy.
The first skirmish in the title battle begins in earnest on the volcanic slopes of Mount Etna on stage four on Italian star Vincenzo Nibali’s home island of Sicily.
For the 37-year-old two-time Giro winner and six-time podium finisher Nibali, the race may be a farewell fling.
British team Ineos have won the past two editions and their leader Richard Carapaz is favourite in a wide field of pretenders, with the winner likely to emerge in the relentlessly mountainous final week.
Carapaz won the Giro in 2019 for Movistar, and with his teammate Egan Bernal out after a horrific crash, is Ineos’ star man after his third place at the Tour de France last year and Olympic gold in Tokyo.
Carapaz has the experience, back-up and mentality but will be pursued by a wide-open field of 22 teams with eight riders each.
There are also arguments in favour of Joao Almeida of UAE Emirates, Simon Yates of Bike Exchange, Mikel Landa of Bahrain Victorious and the French nearly man Romain Bardet. –