The Giro d’Italia starts with a hilly stage from the coast to the capital.
The Route: 160km and after a spin along the sea front, it’s inland to Elbasan, once the home of Albania’s steel industry, now beset the legacies of its downfall, and twinned with the city of Liège. It’s here big climb of the day begins, 13km at 5.1% but with a first half that nudges 6%, it’s possible for teams to sap the sprinters here but they’ll probably just prefer to wait for the finishing circuit.
The Finish: a circuit where the riders join close to the finish line and head out for the climb to Surrel, descend back to Tirana and then do the climb once more before the downhill run to the finish.
The climb is steady for the most part, 3km at 5% but with more, there are some 8-9% ramps, sufficient to drop the dragster sprinters if teams press hard. A late attack? It’s possible as from the top there’s only 11km to the finish, half of which is on twisting roads before big boulevards in town.
The Contenders: when Wout van Aert (Visma-LAB) was touted to ride the Giro you might remember some talk about targetting the overall. That was dismissed quickly but alas he’s lowered expectations to the point where being competitive today is a hope more than an expectation. One reason behind his lack of sparkle in the spring classics was the knee injury in last year’s Vuelta which meant he spent a long time unable to lift weights, run and do sprint training and so went into the classics a lot less explosive than he’d like. Since then he’s said he’s been on antibiotics and off the bike in recent days and hopes to come good later in the race. Olav Kooij might be the fastest rider in the race but can he cope with the climbing?
A fast finisher who can handle short climbs but doesn’t have as much bad luck? Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) fits the bill.
Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has the speed, the results and can deliver on a hilly course but no sizzle, he just quietly delivers but this could be too hard. Less than a year ago Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quickstep) was riding the Giro Next Gen, the Under-23 version. In fact he even had early plans to target the overall but changed his mind after realising the climbs would be too long. He’s since bulked up but it shows the versatility.
Milan Fretin (Cofidis) looks like a body-double for Van Aert and has had some results this season but a win today would be huge. Max Kanter (XDS Astana) is versatile and fast too.
So far the sprinters and finisseurs. A late attack can work but it’s lottery. Still Pello Bilbao (Bahrain) is good at any climb-descend-to-finish day, same for Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) and Jon Barrenetxea (Movistar) would be a dark horse pick but he’s got to get past all the others too.
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Pedersen |
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Bilbao, WvA, Godon |
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Magnier, Kanter, Strong, Pidcock |
Weather: overnight rain drying out, 24°C. A headwind up the last climb and a tailwind on the way down but a breeze.
TV: live from start to finish. KM0 is at 13.30 and the finish is forecast for 17.15 CEST. Tune in from 4.00pm to see the intermediate sprint and the laps around Tirana.
Postcard from Durrës
Durrës has ferry links to Italy and today’s postcard is about someone who made the journey out of the city to Scandiano, a village in Emilia-Romagna.
In the year 2000, at the age of 10, Eugert Zhupa left Durrës for Italy, moving to Scandino to join his father who’d moved clandestinely to Italy before being able to settle. Like other local boys here Eugert took up cycling. This time it was after a bet where if he could pedal up a steep hill then he could have his club membership fees paid. He made it, then rose up the ranks to turn pro, signing for the Christina Watches team in 2013. Only he never raced with the Danish team because he was fired after being spotted starting a race on the Italian calendar dressed in the kit of an Italian team.
He turned pro again with the Southeast team, one of the incarnations of the Farnese/Vini Fantini/Willier Triestina/Zabu team and this time managed to establish a career, including riding the Giro four times where he could be spotted in the breakaway. In 2018 he had 97 race days, more than any other pro.
He travelled on an Italian passport but opted to ride for Albania, returning to the land of his birth each year for the national championships where he won seven titles. He told the local newspaper in Scandino that each time he returned to Albania he could see the changes as the standard of living rose.
He went to the 2017 World Championships in Norway, becoming the first Albanian to race the worlds and got in the early breakaway of ten riders in the road race. But he did not have much support, the hotel he was staying in had closed the restaurant leaving him with one banana to eat before the 267km race.
His career ended prematurely when out training one day in the spring of 2019 a driver crashed into Zhupa leaving him unable to race.
He joined the local ceramics works of Ariostea to operate the ovens. This was a come-down, his salary as a pro could reach €50,000 and now he was on half of this and working night shifts. He even felt shame as he told local newspaper Il Resto di Carlino because Ariostea used to sponsor its own cycling team so he’d have to walk past the images of the team on the walls and this was “devastating… the wound opened up every morning. Mentally I felt terrible. I still haven’t digested it” he said.
Tempted to return to the sport, he wanted to ride the Giro-E, the celebrity event that sees invitees ride the last 40km of a Giro stage on e-bikes ahead of the race. But one sponsor and manufacture of bikes turned him down, “they told me I wasn’t Italian enough” Zhupa said. One reason he opted for Albania he said was that so the media would see someone from this country and say something positive, “I will be the first Albanian that the newspapers will speak well of” he said.
Groves🤞.
It’s possible but it’ll be a fitness test. He’s survived some hilly days to win; other time he’s been dropped like a stone on a climb.
Hard one to call with non-decisive hills (probably, as you indicate.
There’ll be an awful lot if riders thinking they’ve got a chance of the jersey. Could be frantic
I fancy Pidcock to have a dig on the last climb and try and stretch his lead on the descent. I reckoned he’s earmarked a few days in pink.
I’d go with that too – pink for even a day would be a coup for his team. But I reckon Bilbao will be with him!
Buongiorno, three weeks of Inrng with the morning Caffè.
I fancy Tom Pidcock today, He can sprint and climb and is the best descender in the Peloton plus no Tadej Pogacer to contend with.
Pedersen
Ah, I love that postcard. Bittersweet. Thank you for sharing the story – a tale almost fit for Hollywood. I hope there’s still room for a positive ending or outcome that keeps him involved in cycling.
Cycling has such large cast of characters, with so very few becoming stars or earning wages that ‘set them up for life’. I love hearing as many of these stories as possible because the sacrifice of a watercarrier is no less than the star. Often they sacrifice more, I am sure.
In a way this reminds me of non-league football (in England), where your hero is a lion on the pitch one day – even facing down a top tier side in a cup match – only you see them working at the local leisure centre the next day and you realise they must balance their training, work, money, ambitions and hopes all at once.
Anyway. More postcards detailing the obscure please. It’s a large part of why we come here.
I wanted to feature Zhupa but feared by the time this preview came out he’d have done 36 media interviews and all the above would be stale but he’s not been too troubled by the media it seems.
Today’s Gazzetta has a short piece on Iltjan Nika who finished on the podium of the junior worlds alongside Mads Pedersen and Mathieu van der Poel at the worlds in 2013. He’s now running a takeaway (al taglio) pizza restaurant with his brother in Marciano in the south of Tuscany.
Pleased you did as there is very little in the English language media about these local heroes. Or not that I’ve seen so far.
Interesting about Nika. I scanned the results. Further down the sheet, outside of the top 10, we see riders like Fortunato and Martinez who are now entering this Giro with realistic ambitions to do something big. But perhaps, ultimately, not as big as running a pizza business with your brother. Chapeau to them.
He was also complaining about not having been officially invited by Albanian institutions to the Grande Partenza. “Ultimo Uomo” (independent sport magazine, worth a check for whomever reads Italian) actually brought him there, together with the Italian structure of the IIC in Tirana. In the same interview he expressed his disappointment for not having being offered opportunities to help developing cycling in Albania. I guess it’s that sort of very common situations where you end up being a foreigner for both sides. I recall him well from his time as a pro cyclist, because Italian media were actually giving him a bit of that positive space he strived for (and rightly so).
Yes, the postcard was lovely. These kind of stories are some of things about cycling. I am looking forward to more, if you are able.
I’m all here for the Bilbao solo descent attack into pink. In general, it does seem like there are a few stages where a late climb means a reduced sprint, which hopefully means fewer teams to chase if there is the madcap solo attack over the last climb. Maybe this will be one! Love an unlikely leader after stage 1
This multi-screen option on Discovery+ is quite tricky to watch
Good morning Inrng (morning in Canada)!
It’s Grand Tour Season, and I can’t wait to see how this plays out – thanks for all of your Spring Season coverage – it’s been a very memorable season so far.
This Giro seems to be a very open race, and it’ll be a refreshing reset of the second tier riders.
Can’t wait for your coverage, so thank you for everything.
Thank you for the “Postcard from …” feature – a real highlight!
Posted before reading today’s comments = +1 to those as well.
Full disclosure, I love Mads Pedersen! (Mostly because his body shape is the closest in the pro peleton to mine) I was thinking his numbers yesterday on the final climb, even in 3rd wheel, must have been crazy. But I see his weight is listed as (only) 70kg.
Can this be right?
I think Pedersen has got leaner over the last couple of years. He’s definitely not as chubby cheaked looking as when he first emerged! Stood next to any of us he’d probably look like a 12 year old boy, like pretty much all pros do!