Rome, May 5 The 106th edition of the Giro d’Italia will bring with it one of the most powerful battles for the throne of current cycling, which will be presented by the Slovenian Primoz Roglic and the Belgian Remel Evenpoel during the almost 3,500 km and 21 stages in which the prestigious ‘ Corsa Rosa’.
Without the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar among the competitors, the one with Jumbo and the one with Quick-Step monopolize all the spotlights as the two almost unique claimants to the title of a competition that will surely have a new winner, since the Australian Jay Hindley, current champion, will not participate.
Both cyclists come to the duel after the confrontation in the Volta Catalunya that Roglic arranged, but with the most important pending account of the last Tour of Spain in which, with Evenpoel ahead, the Slovenian had an accident that prevented him from competing until the end to get the machada.
The route through the transalpine country, divided into 21 stages, will have a large presence of time trials and up to seven finals on the hill, among which the Three Peaks of Lavaredo, in the northern region of Veneto, stands out, and with more than 50km of accumulated unevenness .
The variety of the route compared to last year, with more than double the kilometers against the clock than in the previous edition, will be key for Evenpoel, who will seek to gain distance with a Roglic who feels comfortable with the demanding and always present and challenging climbs Italian by the Apennines, the Alps and the Dolomites.
Other big names such as the Danish Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), the Welshman Geraint Thomas (INEOS), the Portuguese Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) or the Russian Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) will present a candidacy to sneak on the podium together with the two favorites with a fight between them that, a priori, will take place one step below the level offered by Roglic and Evenpoel.
This Saturday the ‘Corsa Rosa’ will begin with a time trial on the shores of the Adriatic, in the Abruzzo region, in which there will only be seven Spanish riders, four of them defending Movistar, in what will be the time with fewer riders Spaniards will participate in the modern era.
Something that greatly complicates a repeat of Mikel Landa’s podium feat last year. Movistar, with José Joaquín Rojas, Carlos Verona, Óscar Rodríguez and Albert Torres, is present at this Giro with the intention of supporting the Colombian Francisco Gaviria.
Jonathan Lastra (Cofidis), Diego Pablo Sevilla (Eolo Kometa) and Luis León Sánchez (Astana) complete the list of Spaniards in the ‘Corsa Rosa’.
There is less than a day to go before the 106th edition of the Giro d’Italia begins, which will start with the first time trial, about 20 kilometers on the Costa dei Trabocchi, and which will end in Ortona, the town where the first ‘Maglia rosa’ of the competition. EFE
tfc/ea
