Giro d'Italia 2019: Preview

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2019 Giro d'Italia(Image credit: Getty Images)

The 2019 Giro d'Italia begins on Saturday, May 11, and this Essential Guide kicks off Cyclingnews' 10-day countdown of special features in preparation for the first Grand Tour of the season. Between now and the opening time trial in Bologna, we'll have special daily content, including major rider interviews, vital race information and retro features that capture the unique feeling and emotions of the Corsa Rosa.

This 102nd edition of the Corsa Rosa rolls out of Bologna on Saturday, May 11, with an evening time trial up to the Basilica della Madonna di San Luca and ends three weeks later on Sunday, June 2, with a 17km time trial into the Roman amphitheatre in the centre of Verona. In between are 21 stages that head south via Tuscany, Lazio, Abruzzo and Puglia and then north back via San Marino for a key time trial and then to Piemonte, climbing first the Alps to the east and then the Passo Gavia and the Passo del Mortirolo before a terrible final week in the Dolomites.

The route is a race of two halves, with the sprinters and adventurers likely to dominate the racing and ownership of the pink jersey until the San Marino time trial on stage 9. We can expect Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) and others to clash in the sprint finishes before perhaps heading home mid-race, while the smaller Italian teams and other wildcards look for the moment of glory that justifies their existence.

Will strong time triallists such as Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) and Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) then go on to control their rivals before sealing victory in Verona? Or will the natural aggression and climbing prowess of Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) prove to be decisive in the final week of fatigue? We will only find out day after day as the kilometres pass under wheel and tension mounts with each turn of the pedals.

Nibali looked on form at the recent Tour of the Alps and 'The Shark of Messina' seems hungry, despite being 34 and the talk about him moving to Trek-Segafredo for 2020. Dumoulin has yet to win in 2019 but is at the peak of his career. Perhaps the Dutchman's only weakness could be the lack of a strong team in the mountains. Roglic has impressed so far this season, winning the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico, but can he handle the pressure for three weeks of unpredictable racing? The same question is legitimate for Simon Yates. The British climber looked in charge of the maglia rosa last year, only to go too deep in the time trial and never recover.

Miguel Angel Lopez has been overlooked by many, but he won at home at the Tour Colombia 2.1 race and again at the Volta a Catalunya. If he has the same form as his hugely successful Astana teammates, he could be a real threat. Compatriot Egan Bernal is equally as dangerous and can count on a young but talented Team Ineos squad that includes Tao Geoghegan Hart and Pavel Sivakov. Bernal is strong in time trials and in the mountains, and the team’s youthful talent will more than make up for a lack of experience.

Twenty-two teams of eight riders will start the race, creating a peloton of 176 riders. Other names to watch for and enjoy include David Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin), Ben O'Connor (Dimension Data), Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), plus sprinters such as Giacomo Nizzolo (Dimension Data), Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe), and rouleurs and puncheurs like Tony Gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale), Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe), Davide Cimolai (Israel Cycling Academy), Michael Valgren (Dimension Data) and Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates).

The Grande Partenza in Bologna will give a true Italian feel to the start of the race. The regional capital of Emilia Romagna is known as 'La Grassa' for its food culture, and the riders will no doubt be warned to stay away from the local delicacies of mortadella, prosciutto, stuffed tortellini pasta, squacquerone cheese and red Lambrusco wine. Bologna has been the site of the Grande Partenza on one previous occasion, in 1994, when Endrio Leoni won the morning road stage before the late Armand De Las Cuevas took over the maglia rosa in the afternoon time trial.

Stage 2 climbs over the Apennines into Tuscany and Fucecchio, with stage 3 starting in Vinci to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci. The sprinters get their chances in Orbitello, Frascati and Terracina on the long road south, with three subsequent stages to San Giovanni Rotondo, L'Aquila – 10 years after a terrible earthquake hit the Abruzzo city – and Pesaro on the Adriatic coast more suited to long breakaways or late attacks.

The 34.8km time trial up to San Marino marks the start of the real battle for overall victory. The road is flat and fast until Faetano for the first 22km, but then climbs up to San Marino on a narrow, steep and twisting back road. It will be interesting to see if riders opt to change bikes mid-stage, and whether anybody goes too deep and cracks close to the finish. Every second lost will be a weight to carry into the mountains.

The final mountains come on stage 20, overlooking the final time trial. The 194km stage from Feltre to the Passo Croce d'Aune covers 194km and three major climbs in a long loop. It starts with the little-known Cima Campo, which leads to the terrible 18.9km Passo Manghen. The Fiemme valley leads to the Passo Rolle and the 13.5km climb up to above the Croce d'Aune. A statue at the summit marks the point where Tullio Campagnolo struggled to change a wheel during a race in 1927 and was inspired to create the quick-release lever. The stage descends and then kicks up to Monte Avena, with six kilometres of twisting climbing at 7.3 per cent to the finish.

Whoever wears the maglia rosa on Saturday afternoon will then have to defend it on the 17km final-stage time trial around Verona. The stage is far from flat, with the Toricelle climb limiting the time gains of the better time triallists. The final winner will be crowned inside the Roman amphitheatre, just like in 1981, when Giovanni Battaglin defended the pink jersey, and in 1984, when Francesco Moser used disc wheels and his Hour Record preparation to snatch victory from Laurent Fignon, and again in 2010, when Ivan Basso won his second Giro d'Italia.

Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.