Vincenzo Nibali with the Trofeo Senza Fine (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The first Giro d'Italia is almost upon us and, as ever, Cyclingnews is counting down the days with a series of special features to build up to the Grande Partenza next Saturday. Links to all these features can be found below.
With 10 days to go, the countdown kicked off on Wednesday with our big race preview. Our resident Italian, Stephen Farrand, who covered his first Giro 25 years ago, sets the scene, looking at the route, contenders and storylines
In store we have exclusive interviews with star riders, including 2017 champion Tom Dumoulin and two-time winner Vincenzo Nibali, along with Simon Yates, Primoz Roglic, and Ben O'Connor.
We're throwing in some retro colour, too, with pieces remembering Marco Pantani's sensational raid on the Mortirolo - which features this year on stage 16 - 25 years ago, and the dramatic final stage of the 1984 Giro, which finished in the same Verona amphitheatre that will host the final act of this year's race.
On top of all that we take a closer look at the route and the stages where the Giro might not be won but could certainly be lost, as well as analysing 10 riders worth keeping an eye on over the coming weeks.
Our final countdown feature will be published on Thursday, just 24 hours before the start of the race. We will have live coverage of every stage of the Giro d'Italia, with full stage reports and photo galleries, exclusive interviews, news and analysis.
Cyclingnews' Giro d'Italia 2019 countdown features
