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Published on Saturday, 27 April 2019 18:13

Giro d'Italia 2019

Bologna to Verona, 3566.8km

11th May to 2nd June

The 102nd Edition of the Giro d’Italia starts on Saturday the 11^th May in Bologna, returning to an Italian start after trips to Israel, Sicily and Holland. It's an interesting route with three time trials and lots of climbing as you'd expect from a Giro!

The race starts and finishes with a time trial, and in all there are 57.8kms of time trialling, a typical amount of time trialling for a Giro really. It's a 'balanced route' they are saying, with the profile getting progessively lumpier as the race goes on, as you can see in the profile graphic below. Unusually for a Grand Tour, there are no mountains for the first nine day, but there are plenty of smaller hills throughout the route and limited opportunities for sprinters across the three weeks.  

They may note be starting in a foreign country this year, but they do visit the principality of San Marino for the uphill finish of the stage 9 TT, the 'Wine Stage', and they come pretty close to entering France when skirting along the west Alps. There is a lot of climbing to be done in the latter part of the race and in fact this Giro will see the riders climb a a record amount of 46,500 vertical metres.

They will be taking on some of the most iconic mountain passes in cycling, including the Passo Gavia, Mortirolo and  Passo Manghen, but will also take on some new climbs such as the Colle del Nivolet up to lake Serru', a stage to Como that is a replica of the finish of Lombardia with the Ghisallo di Sormano and Civiglio and even take on a gravel roads along the way too. There are some short stages, but stages 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 15 are all over 200kms.   

It's a sort of S-shaped route with the race starting near the top of Italy in Bologna, then heading south in a loop that takes them along the west Tyrennean coast, then across the Appennines and up the east Adriatic coast before cutting diagonally left to the west Alps. They then skirt along through the Alps in a tough final week before the closing TT in Verona on a course that has been used for the World Championships in the past. 

The Stages

Stage 1 is a short 8.9km TT in Bologna with a tough 2.1km climb to the finish at 9.7% average, Stage 2 is supposedly a sprinters' stage but has some lumpy hills in the last 50kms or so. Stage 3 should definitely be one for the sprinters with an almost totally flat profile, Stage 4 is a long 223kms long and is quite a lumpy day in the saddle for the sprinters, with the last kilometre a 4% drag to the line. Stage 5 is very short at just 140kms and after a lumpy start there's one Cat 4 lump to get over with 50kms to go and the last 40kms are dead flat - one for the sprinters. 

Stage 6 is the second longest stage of the race at 238kms, and is quite a tough, lumpy stage on bad roads. There's a Cat 2 climb which tops out with just 18kms to go which might shake out a lot of the sprinters, and then has a slightly uphill sprint finish too. Stage 7 takes them to L'Aquila, an area devastated by earthquakes in 2009, on a very lumpy and tough stage that ends with a 7% pull to the line for the final kilometre. 

Stage 8 is the longest of the race (by just 1km) at 239kms, and after a lumpy last 75kms or so they descend for the last 7kms to Pesaro for a likely bunch sprint, but don't rule out a late break stealing the spoils here. Stage 9 is the 34.8km TT to San Marino, which climbs gently from the start and kicks up for the last 12kms, while stage 10 is one of those dead flat stages in the Po valley, thankfully they are shortening the boredom by making it just 145kms. 

Stage 11 is another of those boring Po Valley flat stages, with barely a ripple on the profile, but it will be a tortuous one for viewers and commentators at 221kms long. Stage 12 is shorter at 158kms and is a mostly flat stage bar a spike to 1428m with 32kms to go, when they go over the first Cat 1 climb of the race, the Montoso. There's an almost hidden sting in the tail though with 2.5kms to go as they are taken over the 'Muro' of the Via Principi d'Acaja, which is 450m long at 14% average, but hits 20% in parts on the paving-style road surface

Suddenly on stage 13 we get really serious - almost 200kms long, with a finish over 2,000m, taking in a Cat 1 and Cat 2 on the way to Lago Serru, with a final climb that is almost 45kms long from bottom to top (with a false flat along the way). Stage 14 is a short but hard mountainous stage of just 131kms that takes in two Cat 1s and two Cat 2s, with an uphill finish.

Stage 15 is another long one at 232kms and after a pretty flat opening 160kms or so it gets quite lumpy for the last 67kms as they enter Lombardia territory with the same finish as the Race of the Falling Leaves to Como going over the Ghisallo, Sormano and Civiglio. Stage 16 is a monster Alpine stage, 226kms long, climbing from the first kilometer and taking in the Cima Coppi hightest climb of the race, the 2,618m Passo Gavia and the Mortirolo before the slightly easier uphill finish to Ponte di Legno. 

Stage 17 is another lumpy one with an uphill finish to Anterselva which looks perfect for a breakaway and Stage 18 is the final chance for the sprinters in the race with a flat last 80kms. Stage 19 is shortish at 151kms, and after a lumpy opening 170kms the road turns upwards for the last 30kms, getting steeper for the last 11kms.

Stage 20 is a brutal stage through the Dolomites, over almost 200kms and over 2000m of vertical altitude gain. They start climbing inside 10kms and go over three monster climbs including the Cima Campo, Passo Manghen (2,407m) and Passo Rolle, before a tough last 20kms and the summit finish at Croce d'Aune - Monte Avena. And the race comes to a conclusion with the final 17km TT in Verona, climbing over the Toricelle bump half way along.   

History, Tradition, Legend

This is a legendary race, a race littered with superstar names like Bartali, Coppi, Grimondi, Merckx, Hinault, Roche, Fignon, Bugno, Indurain, Pantani, and now even Froome following his stunning win in this race last year. The year before that we had Tom Dumoulin fight off everything that was thrown at him, including a bout of dodgy tummy on stage 16. Vincenzo Nibali took his second Giro in 2016, Alberto Contador won it in style in 2015, Quintana in 2014, Nibali in 2013 and Hesjedal motored to victory in 2012.

This is a race steeped in history - it's the 102nd running of the Giro, which was first run in 1909 (skipped a few years because of the World Wars). The race was first suggested by the editor of La Gazetta Della Sport to his cycling editor and the owner, as he wanted to create an Italian replica of the Tour de France, seeing it as a way to promote and increase sales of the newspaper. They were up for it, but the problem was lack of funds. It resulted in a scramble around Italy to raise donations, but they managed to raise enough to fund the operating costs, even securing 3000 Lira from their rival newspaper Corriere. 

The first race may only have had eight stages, but the 127 riders that started faced an incredible 2,448Kms in just those eight stages, an average of 306kms per stage! It's a miracle that 49 riders managed to finish it! This year's race is of course very different with 21 stages stretched over 3 weeks, covering 3,615kms, or an average stage distance of a paltry 171kms in comparison!

Contenders and Favourites

Tom Dumoulin is the favourite for the race, and there's plenty of reasons to see why. Winner in 2017, he's shown he can deal with everything Italy can throw at him, and this year's route with three time trials looks very suitable for him. 

But it looks wide open from a betting point of view, with three other riders around the 3/1 mark - Simon Yates led this race last year until the 19th stage, but eventually finished way down in 21st place after cracking on that incredible stage won by Froome. 

Primoz Roglic just gets better and better every year - he's entered two stage races this year and won them both, in Tirreno and UAE Tour, and his powerful TT and attacking mentality will have him challenging Dumoulin on all fronts. 

And Egan Bernal looks like he will be leading the line for Team Ineos, at least until Geraint Thomas confirms if he's going for the Giro/Tour double. Bernal apparently has been spotted weeks ago practicing on his TT bike on the course in Verona, and setting some blistering times on climbs in preparation for this and he's going to be very exciting to watch. 

And then you have Vincenzo Nibali who has been impressing in the Tour of the Alps and is a two-time winner of this race and Miguel-Angel Lopez, another Colombian who looks 'on the verge of greatness'. It looks like the winner is going to come from this sextet, but you can never tell with the Giro, anything can, and probably will happen. 

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