Complete guide to the Giro d'Italia 2023: how to watch, favorites and key stages

At a time when short and intense stages were the norm, the Giro d'Italia returns to its origins with an old-fashioned route that includes three stages against the clock, mountain stages with more than 5,000 meters of elevation gain and the traditional Giro traps. A perfect scenario for the duel between two cyclists of the stature of Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel, who will contest in Italy the revenge of the last edition of La Vuelta a España.

The most spectacular Giro d'Italia in recent times is here

Since the presentation of the route of the Giro d'Italia 2023 a few months ago, the word "great race" has come to our minds. Undoubtedly, the hardest grand tour of recent times and that poses a perfect scenario for the protagonists of the game, the cyclists, to make us enjoy the most.

Nothing to do with the modern cycling that has been sold to us in recent years, that of short and supposedly nervous stages, that of the finishes on impossible slopes or the one that avoided time trials to keep the classification tight until the last day.

When does the Giro d'Italia 2023 start?

The Italian grand tour will start next Saturday, May 6th with the Abruzzo region as the stage for its grande partenza. A Giro that will last until May 28th when it will finish in the streets of Rome.

• Stage 1 : Costa dei Trabocchi (Fossacesia Marina – Ortona) – 18.4 km (individual time trial)
• Stage 2: Teramo – San Salvo – 204 km
• Stage 3: Vasto – Melfi – 210 km
• Stage 4: Venosa – Lago Lanceno – 184 km
• Stage 5: Atriplada – Salerno – 172 km
• Stage 6: Napoli – Napoli – 156 km
• Stage 7: Capua – Gran Sasso d’Italia (Campo Imperatore) – 218 km
• Stage 8: Terni – Fossombrone – 207 km
• Stage 9: Savignano sul Rubicone – Cesena – 33.6 km (individual time trial)
• Stage 10: Scandiano – Viareggio – 190 km
• Stage 11: Camaiore – Tortona – 218 km
• Stage 12: Bra – Rivoli – 179 km
• Stage 13: Borgofranco d’Ivrea – Crans Montana – 208 km
• Stage 14: Sierre – Cassano Magnago – 194 km
• Stage 15: Seregno – Bergamo – 191 km
• Stage 16: Sabbio Chiese – Monte Bondone – 198 km
• Stage 17: Pergine Valsugana – Caorle – 192 km
• Stage 18: Oderzo – Val di Zoldo – 160 km
• Stage 19: Longarone – Tre Cime di Lavaredo – 182 km
• Stage 20: Tarvisio – Monte Lussari – 18.6 (individual time trial)
• Stage 21: Roma – Roma – 115 km

A Giro d'Italia 2023 designed in the old style with no less than three stages against the clock including an unusual time trial climb on the penultimate day. But it is already, from the first day, we will see differences with no less than 18 kilometers against the clock while the second of them, 33 kilometers, is located right in the middle of the race.

In between, two first weeks with days that on paper should not be, except on specific days, decisive for the classification but in which wear and tear should be accumulated thanks to mileages completely atypical in cycling today, with 11 of the 21 stages over 190 kilometers in distance.

What this Giro d'Italia 2023 does maintain its tradition is to maintain an absolutely huge second half of the race with 3 stages over 5,000 meters of elevation gain and chained of totally epic passes to which must be added several medium mountain stages, such as the one that ends in Bergamo, in which at any time the surprise can jump.

How to watch the Giro d'Italia 2023

As we are used to, Eurosport will follow the Giro d'Italia, not only with live coverage of all its stages, but also with the subsequent analysis of the same by its experts in the program La Montonera. A broadcast that we will be able to follow through the television channel itself, its online platform or the associated service GCN+.

Favorites to win the Giro d'Italia 2023

Although the Italian race looks set to be an exciting duel between Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel, the all-star line-up that the Giro d'Italia has chosen for 2023 is remarkable and promises an intense race from the outset.

Among the two big favorites to wear the maglia rosa in Rome, Remco Evenepoel is perhaps the one most likely to win the race. The Belgian rider has just amazed us with a tremendous performance in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. However, the Soudal-QuickStep rider's season has had a much more discreet start than that of other great riders of the current peloton and, in addition, there remains the question of how his team will be able to support him, which, so far this season, has struggled with a disappointing season of classics while in the stage races they have not been dominant in any of them. However, being the reigning winner of La Vuelta a España, the last grand tour contested, gives him that vote of confidence.

Facing him will be a Primoz Roglic who seems to have forgotten his ups and downs of last year and comes to the Giro d'Italia in a rage with the aim of proving that he is still a top rider. In his favor is the fantastic start of his campaign where, without appearing to be the strongest rider in the two races he has raced: Tirreno-Adriatico and Volta a Catalunya, he has been able to take advantage of his abilities to not only win the overall in both races but also several stage victories in both of them. Moreover, in the Catalan race he did it against Remco Evenepoel, although in a very different terrain to the one he will find in the monstrous stages of the Giro.

In his favor the Slovenian will have a powerful Jumbo-Visma that has spared no effort to support him although, at the last minute, the withdrawals by Covid of Wilco Kelderman, Tobias Foss, Robert Gesink and Sam Oomen have left the Dutch squad without its best climbers to support Roglic in the mountains, leaving all the weight of the road leadership on the shoulders of an always solvent Sepp Kuss.

Covid has also reached a Bahrain-Victorious that loses Gino Mader before the start, who should have been one of the main supports for Santiago Buitrago, one of the main animators of last year's edition and who was presented in this Giro looking for a surprise in a team that will base its bet on him and the veteran Damiano Caruso.

The reigning winner of the race, Jai Hindley, will not be defending his title. In his place, Bora-Hansgrohe's gallons will fall on the always efficient Alexandr Vlasov who, although his approach to the Italian race has not been brilliant in terms of results, is always a guarantee of endurance and knowing how to take advantage of his opportunities. His lieutenant will be Lennard Kamna, a rider who is improving every year and could be a perfect plan B for the team.

A very similar situation to that of UAE Team Emirates, with an indestructible Joao Almeida as leader, a rider who has to be dropped a thousand times to eliminate him, but who also has the alternative of Jay Vine, who already demonstrated in La Vuelta his great performance in the mountains and a few months ago, when he won the Australian championship, that he is also capable of performing at a high level in time trials. The Australian has practically disappeared since the start of the season while Almeida, almost without making noise, has achieved podiums in Tirreno-Adriatico and Volta a Catalunya behind those who will be his main rivals in this Giro.

Finally, perhaps a point below the above mentioned, we should talk about an INEOS Grenadiers somewhat blurred in recent times but that, thanks to what we saw during the recently disputed Tour of the Alps, where Tao Geoghegan managed to win with total solvency and, let's not forget that the British is the only one of those named here who can boast of having won a Giro d'Italia. He will also count on the solvency of Geraint Thomas who, despite the fact that his great days seem distant, has shown that he is not afraid to work hard for the team.

Stages you shouldn't miss in the Giro 2023

In the 2023 edition of the Giro d'Italia there are not few days that will keep us hooked to the television waiting for the spectacle that can be seen. These are the days you should not miss.

Stage 7 - Capua – Gran Sasso d’Italia (Campo Imperatore)

After the first contact with the mountains on stage 4, the race will end the first week with a tremendous stage finishing in Campo Imperatore. It is true that this final climb, despite its great length, is very flat and in normal conditions should not make any difference. However, it is 218 kilometers that can make more than one's legs ache.

Stage 13 - Borgofranco d’Ivrea – Crans Montana

Stage of more than 200 kilometers with more than 5,000 meters accumulated over 3 long alpine climbs. The first of them, the Grand Saint Bernard, the Cima Coppi of this 2023 edition with its 2,469 m of altitude which will be followed by the Croix de Coeur to access Swiss lands in search of the finish in Crans Montana.

Stage 16 - Sabbio Chiese – Monte Bondone

Again almost 200 kilometers and the second of the days that will exceed 5,000 meters of elevation gain in this Giro. A dream chain in which the summits of Passo di Santa Barbara, Passo Bordala, Matassone and Serrada will follow one another with hardly any rest before the final ascent to the hard Monte Bondone. An absence of flat terrain that could lead to unforeseen movements that could blow up the race.

Stage 19 - Longarone – Tre Cime di Lavaredo

A real dolomitic tappone awaits the cyclists with just two days to go. An up and down without breaks in which one summit after another is chained, always close to 2,000 m of altitude with all that this entails, especially considering that we are at the end of the Giro. And for dessert, what is undoubtedly the most iconic climb of the Dolomites massif with the beautiful scenery and excellent cycling that always leave us the arrivals to the Three Tops of Lavaredo, especially if we consider that it will be the last chance to destroy the race. Well, actually, the penultimate one.

Stage 20 - Tarvisio – Monte Lussari

In this Giro d'Italia it will be difficult for the classification to be sufficiently tight because of the hardness preceding this stage, but who knows?