A for ammiraglia. You say team car, in Italian the word is ammiraglia, a naval word that means “flag ship”, which sounds both superior and poetic.

B for Bartali… and Coppi. The pair of riders encapsulate plenty, a golden age and a sporting rivalry that went well beyond antics on the road, they were also opposing characters from different regions with different styles: Bartali the pious Tuscan, Coppi as urbane and modern. Some of the differences were exaggerated and caricatured but that’s the very essence of a rivalry.

C for Campagnolo. The component maker began when Tulio Campagnolo found undoing wing nuts with his frozen hands and invented the quick release lever and in time his firm became a leading component manufacturer. Today though only one World Tour team in Ag2r Citroën rides Campagnolo.

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It’s only the fourth stage and Tuesday but here’s a mountain stage with a tough final climb to make today one for the GC riders.

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An intriguing stage. The action should be on the flanks of Monte Vulture, an extinct volcano. But who will control the stage? The sprinters’ teams cannot and the GC teams won’t rush either.

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A flat stage for the sprinters. They have few opportunities in this race so this is an important stage for them and their teams.

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Welcome to the start of three weeks of daily previews. Time trials are a theme of this year’s race as there are three of them and today is a crucial stage, this is not a warm-up antipasto prologue, it’s a hearty main course.

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A look at the contenders and pretenders for the 2023 Giro d’Italia. This year’s edition seems to open with two questions. Who will finish first between Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič, and who will finish third?

This the picture today and so often the Giro is an optical illusion that reveals a different form later. We’ll revisit and revise the contenders and their outlook on each of the rest days.

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Here’s the Giro d’Italia guide. There’s all the stage profiles on one page, with a preview of their routes well as explainers on the rules for the mountains and points competitions; TV guide, time-cuts and more.

A separate look at the contenders and pretenders for the overall win will be along soon.

As loyal readers will know, a reminder you can read this post here but if you need the reference material anytime in the coming weeks there’s a permanent page with all the same info at inrng.com/giro, which you can reach via the menu at the top of the screen for desktop browsers / dropdown menu on a mobile device.

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Last week’s stage race may not have wowed television viewers but it was rich in information and ideas. A round-up…

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Kazuyasu Tayama is a master craftsman when it comes to making cast iron kettles, often important and cherished utensils in Japan, a land of tea and cold winters. When he started work as an apprentice at the age of 16 in a small workshop, it took decades before he was allowed to pour the molten iron to make a kettle. Metalwork requires practice but Tayama was expected to learn by watching and gradually assimilate the techniques needed.

If you’re wondering what on earth Japanese kettles are doing on a cycling blog, well watching TV a year ago revealed Tayama’s story and it supplied a remarkable example of lengthy apprenticeship. In cycling things weren’t as pronounced but there used to be an informal apprenticeship where riders would turn professional in their early 20s and take years to learn the trade, typically reaching their peak in their late 20s or even early thirties. Only as you read this you can probably hear the sound of an iron kettle smashing through a glass ceiling as today a crop of riders can turn pro out of the junior ranks, win World Tour races as a teenager and several still eligible for the U23 ranks stand on grand tour podiums.

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Remco Evenepoel goes clear on La Redoute, Tom Pidcock gives chase and will manage to get onto his back wheel but he won’t last long. From here on Evenepoel’s biggest rivals were the rain and the cold but he stayed away to take a prestigious second consecutive win in Liège.

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