With the early part of the year behind us, May sees the start of cycling’s ‘Grand Tour’ trilogy for 2024, kicking off as usual with the Giro d’Italia: “The world’s hardest race, in the world’s most beautiful place.” The 107th edition of ‘the race for pink’ sets off from just outside Turin on Saturday, and travels 3,400 kilometres over 21 stages before finishing outside Rome’s famous Colosseum on Sunday May 26th.

As we have come to expect from the Giro, the route is heavily backloaded, with the five toughest stages coming in the last seven days. Compared to previous iterations, this year’s course is shorter and with less climbing overall, but with two time trials and over 44,650 metres of ascending to be tackled, this is as challenging a three weeks as you would expect.

Leading Team Bahrain Victorious and making his Giro debut in his home country, is Antonio Tiberi. The 22 year old arrives having just won the youth classification at the Tour of the Alps, where he finished in the top ten on every stage. The Italian has also produced some stunning performances in time trials over recent months.

“This is my first Giro, so as an Italian cyclist I’m in dreamworld really! It’s been an ambition for me since I started riding a bike, so I’m really emotional to be with the fans – on the roadside and also those watching on TV. I am a proud Italian, and these are the roads of my country, so I am excited and super emotional about being here, as well as very proud that the team have the faith in me to make me leader”

Alongside the youngster will be the experienced head of his compatriot Damiano Caruso, who will be our road captain. Caruso is a former stage winner, and makes his 7th appearance, having finished 2nd in 2021 and 4th last year.

As well as 72km of individual time trials, there will be six summit finishes, a ‘Strade Bianche’ style gravel stage in Tuscany, and potentially as many as nine opportunities for bunch sprints. The opening stage already offers a chance for the GC men to get stuck in, with three categorised climbs including the C2 Colle Maddalena which crests 22km from the finish in Torino. The first pink jersey of 2024 will then lead the peloton to a C1 mountaintop finish at the Santuario di Oropa on Sunday. Stages 3 – 7 are either flat or undulating, and plenty of riders will sense the possibility of a prestigious addition to their ‘palmares’.

Bahrain have three in the line-up for days such as these: Phil Bauhaus will be the designated sprinter, and takes to the startline for the 3rd time. The German would love to add a Grand Tour stage to his collection, which includes a win at Tirreno Adriatico last month. Supporting Bauhaus in his lead-out, and providing flat support for our GC riders, will be Jasha Sütterlin and Andrea Pasqualon. Both were crucial 12 months ago as Bahrain took the ‘Maglia Ciclamino’ points jersey on the final podium.

Lead Sports Director in Italy is Gorazd Štangelj, who believes the racing will be full gas from the beginning:

“It starts hard from day 1. And day 2. Then S3 is a clear sprint. After that everything is very open. You can lose precious time early on, so we need to be in the right place and invest in the GC from Saturday, while also making sure we can be there for Phil. The second week, while not in any way easy, is more straightforward, but week 3 is extremely difficult.

The ‘Queen Stage’, or ‘Tappone’ in Italian, is stage 15, the day before the second rest day. It is also the longest stage, and has over 5000 metres of elevation gain. After ⅔ of the 220km comes the legendary Mortirolo, before a double Cat 1 summit finish to Livigno.  The highest point of the race – the ‘Cima Coppi’ – comes early on the following day at the top of the Passo Stelvio.

With six mountain stages, climbing support will be vital, and comes in the form of Edoardo Zambanini, Torstein Træn, and Rainer Kepplinger. It is a first Giro for both the Norwegian and the Austrian, while the Italian made it to Rome last year as TBV took the ‘Best Team’ trophy.

Štangelj knows that the three weeks will require clear heads from the off:

“We need to balance the strengths we have with us in Bauhaus on the flat, and Tiberi/Caruso in the mountains. We would like to win stages with Phil and also do well on GC. We have the tools and the riders to compete in the sprint stages and overall. We don’t want to split our aims too much, so we will try to use other teams’ strengths to our benefit. On top of that, Rainer is a bit of a wild card; nobody knows him that much so we may be able to spring a surprise with him.”

The race has a clear favourite in the form of world number one Tadej Pogačar (UAE), but this year promises to be one of the most open editions in years. Štangelj concludes:

“We dream about a podium with Antonio or Damiano, but we will have to see how things turn out each day. Anything can happen, and you need focus from the beginning. Everyone’s work will be cut out from day 1, and we have a team to compete every day.”

The Giro d’Italia starts on Saturday from Venaria Reale at 13:50 CET, and May the 4th be with us!