PROLOGUE
PROCYCLING: AT THE HEART OF THE PELOTON
Passo Pordoi has been a Giro favourite since 1940 and returns on the tough stage 16 in 2021
Images: Bertorello (Pinot), Claessen (Wiles)/both via Getty, Gruber Images (Passo Pordoi).
2021 GIRO D’ITALIA ROUTE
Star studded line-up descends on the Giro
This year the startlist of the Giro d’Italia could almost be swapped with the Tour de France. Egan Bernal, Thibaut Pinot, Vincenzo Nibali, Simon Yates, Mikel Landa and Romain Bardet are all down to ride the first grand tour of the season.
Plus João Almeida, who spent a fortnight in the pink jersey last year. It will be a challenging race, too, with over 47,000 metres of climbing across the 21 stages, six mountain finishes, and sections of gravel and dirt roads to add into the mix. For Matt White, directeur sportif with BikeExchange, whoever wins the Giro will be a “very complete bike rider”.
The Giro has become more of an option for the sport’s biggest stars, as it is a different test to the Tour. White thinks that the field will be especially strong this year because of the Olympics, with the road race scheduled for late July, close to the finish of the Tour. “Also the amount of time trial kilometres this year at the Tour is scaring some guys away. If you saw 60km of time trialling in the Giro as well, you might get some guys that would focus on the Tour instead.”