The first Grand Tour of the season is almost upon us, with several big-name favourites and outside contenders ready to race for three full weeks in May.
Foundations have been being laid for months, right from the depths of winter, and the early-season warm-up races are now all but out of the way. With the exception of a few final tune-ups, the pink jersey hopefuls are now race ready.
Here, Cyclingnews takes a look at the principal candidates to lift the Trofeo Senza Fine in Rome on May 28, along with the form they’re raking to the start in the Abruzzo region on May 6.
As with the Tour de France, we have ranked the riders by form, looking at their results and performances from the season so far. The order is not necessarily a reflection of who’s likeliest to win the race but who’s looking best as we get started.
1. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep)
- Age: 23
- Grand Tour experience: 2022 Vuelta winner, 2nd Giro appearance
- 2023 results: 1st Liège-Bastogne-Liège, 2nd Volta a Catalunya, 1st UAE Tour, 7th Vuelta a San Juan
He may have hidden his recent training files from Strava but, with another sensational solo victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Remco Evenepoel proved that he is well on track for the Giro. The world champion once again skipped away from everyone on La Redoute and even when Tom Pidcock latched back on he showed the brute nature of his strength by dropping him in the saddle, on the false flat. It must have been a humbling experience for the young Briton, and even more so for the rest of the contenders who came together into groups – albeit disorganised ones – but only slipped further and further back.
The absence of Tadej Pogačar was then the great what-if of Liège, in terms of the race as a spectacle but also in terms of assessing Evenepoel’s form. Beating the man of the season so far would have painted the Belgian as the definitive man to beat at the Giro but nevertheless he still showed he is pretty much where he needs to be.
For reference, look back to last year and the way Evenepoel dropped down from his various stints of altitude training to dominate the Clásica San Sebastián in the build-up to the Vuelta a España. After separate stints on Mount Teide and another virtuoso solo at Liège, he’s following the familiar format, with one final tune-up now at the altitude-controlled sea-level hotel in south east Spain.
Evenepoel dominated…
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