When the curtain goes up on the full 2023 Giro d’Italia route in Milan on Monday October 17, there appears to be every chance that Remco Evenepoel will like what he sees.
Giro d’Italia race director Mauro Vegni has made no secret of his desire to bring the new world champion back to his race next year and the early indications are that the 2023 route will feature three individual time trials to tempt Evenepoel to ride the Corsa Rosa in the rainbow jersey.
The first of those time trials was confirmed on Wednesday morning, when RCS Sport formally unveiled the Grande Partenza of the 2023 Giro in Abruzzo.
The opening stage is an 18.4km individual time trial from Fossacesia to Ortona in the hinterland of Pescara. A day later, the sprinters will have an opportunity at the end of the 204km run from Teramo to San Salvo, while RCS Sport has also announced that the Giro will return to the Abruzzo region on stage 7 for a summit finish at Gran Sasso d’Italia, the first time the race climbs above 2,000 metres.
Speaking on Wednesday morning in Pescara, Vegni pointed out that the race would not scale such heights too often thereafter. Instead, in keeping with longstanding rumours of a time trial-laden course, he suggested that the 2023 Giro would be less mountainous and less demanding than this year’s race, where Jai Hindley emerged victorious ahead of Richard Carapaz.
“We have deliberately chosen a less complicated and technical route than last year, and we won’t have stages that go above 2,500 metres in altitude,” Vegni told Tuttobici.
“My dream would be to see a lot of important names at our race because we have one of the most beautiful races in the world, and the riders themselves say so.”
The initial rationale for the less onerous route was undoubtedly RCS Sport’s efforts to tempt Tadej Pogačar into trying the Giro-Tour double, but Vegni has all but accepted that the Slovenian’s Corsa Rosa debut will have to wait for another year.
After losing his Tour de France crown to Jonas Vingegaard last July, it seems most likely that Pogačar will make winning it back again the centrepiece of his 2023 season.
“I would have liked to have seen Pogačar at the Giro next year, but he’ll definitely do the Tour,” Vegni admitted.
“However, I wouldn’t rule out the participation of Primož Roglič or Remco Evenepoel. We don’t have news about them yet, but it will certainly be a race for them.”
The finer details of the route will only sharpen into focus on…
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