Vincenzo Nibali aim for three of a kind. Tom Dumoulin look for the encore. Simon yates he wants to take back that pink jersey that dramatically vanished on the Colle delle Finestre dirt road. Primois Roglic ponder the stroke that definitively certifies him among the big names of the pedal. The Tour of Italy which this Saturday starts from Bologna with the tantalizing and suggestive San Luca uphill time trial has this year a poker of well-defined favourites. It's up to runners like Miguel Angel Lopez e Mikel Landa, very talented but so far not very successful, the difficult task of breaking the bank of the super popular by bookmakers.
It had to be at the top of the favors too Egan Bernal, the young Colombian climber on whom Ineos (formerly Sky) was aiming to win the Giro again after Chris Froome's triumph last year, but a crash in training resulting in a broken collarbone deprived the pink race of a sure protagonist , an absence that for the high ranking weighs even more than that of Alejandro Valverde. Froome e Thomas, as we knew from the beginning of the season, are focused on the Tour. Also Nairo Quintana, pink jersey in 2014, chose the Tour to seek redemption after disappointing seasons. Fabio Arau is recovering after a complicated operation.
It is a Giro that immediately puts the big names to the test: at the top of San Luca it will be a fight to the last pedal stroke for the first pink jersey, on paper a duo game between Roglic and Dumoulin, with the Slovenian recent winner of the Tour de Romandie, favorite over the Dutch, pink jersey of the 2017 Giro. But whatever the result, the brevity of the stage – 8 km with the last two in steep ascent – will not cause sensitive gaps. After the show in Bologna, the Giro – which will end with the time trial in Verona after 3.578 km – does not feature a track in the first week of the race which, barring surprises, shouldn't shake the rankings.
For a reshuffle of the forces in the field we will have to wait for the ninth stage, when we will race the 35 km time trial from Riccione to San Marino. Then, after a few stages still for sprinters like Viviani, Gaviria, Démare and Ewan, they will arrive the great mountains with the Gavia – in the 16th stage from Lovere to Ponte di Legno – which with its 2.618 meters is the Cima dedicated to Coppi, the Champion of whom the Giro with the Cuneo-Pinerolo celebrates the centenary of his birth.
