Welcome to the 2022 edition of the Giro d'Italia - Benvenuti all'edizione 2022 del Giro d'Italia!
Don't you just all look forward to riding through the beautiful scenary of Italy? We sure do! First, let's have a look at the wonderful route presentation, created by jandal7 prior to the seasons.
We can't describe the route better than that by any means, so we would like to recommend for all of you to read or re-read that great piece of work - and instead move on to the riders. For good measure, though here is the route in simple stage to stage form.
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Nothing will be decided until the penultimate stage before arriving in Brescia later this month. But let's have a look at who actually has a shot at winning this race!
Well...
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
71
85
75
78
78
80
79
65
67
74
65
70
77
There is one. And only one. Former Vuelta 2020 and Tour 2021 winner Lecuisinier is a MASSIVE pre-race favorite. No one matches him in the mountains, no one beats him in the timetrials, and only a few 5-10 rated riders matches him on the hills. He's also among the fastest finishers with the best allround physical traits. Everything other than a relatively comfortable win from Lecuisinier would be devastating. With him is the likes of Vosekalns, Blums and Sergis, and this should easily be enough to control the temperature of the race to the liking of the french superstar.
In the tier below we find a few more riders fighting for the remaining podium spots.
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Angel Madrazo
66
83
74
75
78
77
78
53
61
69
64
67
75
Sam Oomen
71
81
75
74
78
77
78
56
65
69
72
68
77
Warren Barguil
70
81
75
70
77
77
82
55
64
75
66
76
70
Jan Hirt
70
81
74
73
77
79
79
52
65
76
74
67
73
Egan Bernal
71
81
74
78
80
80
82
64
67
69
64
69
76
Fredrik Strand Galta
69
81
73
73
78
79
77
52
63
66
66
70
71
Louis Meintjes
71
80
78
71
77
76
78
57
61
69
71
74
71
Pavel Sivakov
69
80
72
76
79
77
82
58
66
69
66
74
75
Normally you would point out Madrazo as an equally big favorite for the 2nd place, but the spaniard has struggled lately and it's doubtful that he brings the form needed to put up a solid fight for the win atleast. Normally his physical condition would help him overcome day to day struggles, but the rivals of him share a great similarity to the former multiple Grand Tour winner. Madrazo does however come with a strong setup around him, to fend off chaotic situations. Ndayisenga in his own right could fight for an outside top 10 chance and Eyob brings a lot of versatility and quality aswell.
We spot a lot of PCT or recently promoted teams putting in a lot of effort here, as Lierse is another lower tier team that has decided to field a strong leader and potential GT podium rider in Oomen, but while Madrazo has a strong team around him, Oomen is mostly on his own. The same can be said about the next on my favorite list Bernal. The 25 year old colombian of new PT side, Polar, comes with an obvious ambition of winning the U25 competition, and he could well be the main rival of Madrazo and Oomen in the fight for 2nd place. Bernal brings little to no support in the mountains, and it will be interesting to see whether this moves Oomen and Bernal on the attack or the defense. Barguil of newly promoted Team UBS certainly knows how to attack, and with decent support from the likes of Schir and Sequera he does have a bit of a parachute if things doesn't work out when attacking. Former teammate Hirt is once again taking on the Giro d'Italia, and while he never made it to the podium before, this could be as good a time as ever. The long term PT team Moser also have multiple GT stage winner Prado on the squad and we can expect him to get his fair amount of chances.
Just below the most obvious podium contenders, we spot a few riders who will likely have ambitions looking at the lineup aswell. Norwegian Galta have ridden numerous Grand Tours with a very mixed succesrate. He's representing last seasons revelation in form of MOL, and with teammates such as McNulty, Stancu and Pereyra he's probably the one best covered by teammates outside the top 2 favorites. The american loanie, McNulty shouldn't be considered without chances in the fight of the U25, but it does seem unlikely that he can beat Bernal. The question is whether or not he can beat the next outsider for the podium. The russian phenomena Sivakov takes over the heritage of Kritskiy who are no longer comfortable battling at the top of the ranks. As always Tinkoff does provide the Grand Tours with some interesting KOM options too, such as Uran, Mamykin and perhaps even Rybalkin. The two latter have an insane phyiscal condition, which makes them valuable GT riders.
The final rider who's yet to be mentioned from the podium candidates is slightly different from the rest. South African Meintjes of De Stijl Cycling is undoubtedly the strongest puncheur of the bunch. He's also among the weakest timetriallists, and arguably the shared weakest on the high mountains. But the punch makes him interesting, as there is quite a lot of stages that in theory could fit him quite well. Guerreiro and future KOM specialist Elosegui will try their best to aid him in his fight for glory, and in particularly Guerreiro seems like the perfect rider to do so. I do have a feeling that Meintjes could be a fairly solid gamble for a top 5 - but whether or not he can make the podium is anyones guess.
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Francesco Bongiorno
69
79
75
68
77
77
77
61
58
69
69
65
68
Primoz Roglic
70
79
75
71
73
74
73
65
68
72
71
70
69
Alex Kirsch
70
79
74
71
75
73
75
67
68
67
62
62
71
Tao Geoghegan Hart
70
79
74
76
76
74
75
62
62
69
70
70
76
Daniel Munoz
66
79
73
66
72
72
74
55
56
71
70
61
58
Michail Mavrikakis
70
79
72
71
74
73
69
54
61
67
63
64
71
Giovanni Carboni
70
78
76
69
73
73
73
62
66
69
61
72
69
The list of top 10 candidates, however is longer than possible to describe. We have highlighted the most likely candidates, and as they are also represented by different teams than already mentioned, they seem like a good bet for riders who could be interested in keeping close to the front for as long as possible. Of the group Geoghegan Hart stands out as the most complete GT rider, but as we know things can quickly change in those lower tier rankings due to multiple interests of stage glory, KOM hunts or even domestique duties. So rather than listing all solid GC riders in this region, let's have a look at the strongest puncheurs of the race.
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Wilco Kelderman
70
71
82
70
80
75
73
62
67
72
77
71
70
Simon Yates
74
70
81
68
77
70
73
52
77
80
74
64
71
Ion Izagirre
70
73
80
76
72
71
67
53
59
63
68
69
76
Arnaud Demare
73
67
80
61
75
72
80
63
82
81
70
63
61
Patrick Müller
70
65
80
63
76
71
70
68
66
73
75
63
63
Dmitry Trakhov
68
69
79
65
78
74
69
55
69
75
70
69
65
Louis Meintjes
71
80
78
71
77
76
78
57
61
69
71
74
71
Attila Valter
72
75
78
66
75
74
72
61
69
76
71
70
66
Dmitry Strakhov
69
70
78
67
77
76
72
57
61
70
64
67
67
Takeaki Amezawa
68
77
77
64
76
78
80
60
68
75
72
69
60
The first thing worth noting is that Meintjes clearly come to the race with mixed ambitions of stage hunting and GC awareness, but he might be slightly disspointed to see the likes of Kelderman, Yates and Demare taking part of the race, as all of those are significantly better equipped on most hilly stages. It will be very exciting to see the two latter also taking part in the flat sprints to hopefully claim the points jersey when the race is over. Both have very solid backup to help them achieve wins in the hills, while most others on the list is more on their own.
Talking about the fight for the sprinters jersey, let's have a look at who's present.
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Eduard Grosu
73
64
73
62
74
70
79
62
83
80
66
70
70
Arnaud Demare
73
67
80
61
75
72
80
63
82
81
70
63
61
Dylan Groenewegen
73
61
67
64
74
71
85
59
82
81
59
64
72
Ivano Lo Cicero
70
54
62
54
68
60
76
67
82
75
52
58
73
Michael Van Stayen
73
61
76
57
71
66
75
66
81
73
70
60
57
Gabriel Cullaigh
74
61
66
63
73
70
78
72
80
81
66
68
67
Stylianos Farantakis
74
59
65
72
75
72
79
66
80
80
61
63
79
Davide Appollonio
73
56
65
60
69
64
70
64
80
76
59
58
60
Alan Banaszek
74
61
65
63
71
73
76
59
79
81
65
70
73
Alberto Dainese
74
62
68
60
73
75
77
63
79
80
64
70
63
Tosh Van der Sande
75
65
70
58
78
73
76
66
79
79
54
60
58
Jasper Philipsen
72
58
68
67
72
69
78
72
79
78
63
62
67
Cees Bol
76
64
70
67
75
77
81
68
79
77
68
67
69
Mohamad I. H. Abdul Halil
68
60
60
60
70
66
76
62
79
77
60
68
64
Emiliano Contreras
72
64
68
64
73
75
77
59
78
80
73
68
74
Romanian superstar Grosu haven't exactly formed the season of his dreams so far, so I suspect he will be somewhat content to see some of the biggest names not present. Grosu has a solid setup around him with Van der Kooij, Meeus and Van den Berg as the likely part of the train build. The absence of van Poppel must be somewhat interesting to follow - but then again, the pair haven't managed to find eachother so far. Demare is the big favorite for the points jersey, and he does also have a very solid setup around him with Steimle, Niu and Madouas as his main leadouts. As always the lineup featues the qualities of Demare, but have sometimes left him a bit behind the stronger trains - and in a flat powerhouse sprint I would suggest that Grosu's train is more endurant - although overall Puma comes out on top.
We can't rule out Groenewegen either, but with Einhorn and Vansevenant as his main helpers he might be hoping that others will take on the duty of forming a train for him to jump onto. The same can be said about Lo Cicero, Farantakis and Appollonio who all will be lurking in the wheels of others.
What the likes of Van Stayen and Cullaigh want, though is more up for debate. The former have a team around him that can probably match him in a regular sprint such as Van der Sande and Groves, while the latter might be interested in taking on the task of riding it from the front with Rodenberg and Pidcock. Overall the sprinters field is pretty stacked in the lower tier field, but the top 3 favorite list is pretty obvious. The race does also provide two relatively long individual timetrials, one being slightly hilly. This probably means that the GC favorites will be able to put the hammer down atleast on that one, but a few riders can't be ruled out on the long, flat TT - and some of these might even prove strong enough on the bumpy one.
Nat.
Name
FL
MO
HI
TT
ST
RS
RC
CB
SP
AC
FG
DH
PR
Michael Hepburn
71
64
66
79
74
77
72
60
66
69
67
62
79
Yuttana Mano
71
72
75
79
72
73
74
62
60
66
69
72
77
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
71
85
75
78
78
80
79
65
67
74
65
70
77
Neilson Powless
72
77
72
78
76
74
76
59
65
71
64
65
78
Michal Kukrle
72
68
66
78
74
74
70
58
65
71
58
63
79
Egan Bernal
71
81
74
78
80
80
82
64
67
69
64
69
76
Janos Pelikan
75
66
70
78
74
72
70
56
61
69
74
63
77
Elia Viviani
77
59
65
78
69
75
72
59
70
68
72
63
78
Luca Sterbini
68
56
66
78
74
73
67
63
57
67
71
65
78
Nikolaos Ioannidis
67
75
73
77
76
74
73
57
58
70
72
67
76
Daniel Turek
73
64
68
77
72
73
71
58
61
68
71
60
76
Stefan De Bod
73
69
70
77
75
78
71
54
60
68
67
69
77
Omer Goldstein
75
66
66
77
72
75
72
63
66
67
63
68
75
Mathias Norsgaard
72
62
65
77
68
73
64
62
57
66
56
59
75
Outside the main GC favorites, Mano and Powless is likely the most interesting options with the likes of Ioannidis, Pelikan and De Bod
also in contention for the early, yet bumpy route. For the late, flat TT we might see riders such as Hepburn, Kukrle, Viviani and Sterbini disrupt the fun also by starting early on the route - but there's alwas a chance that some of these are not in the race at this point.
Enough chit-chat - Let's look at the entire startlist.
Good luck to all, and enjoy the race!
Thank you for the awesome preview! I can only agree with your assessment of Madrazo. On paper, everything but second place would be pretty poor (Lecuisinier should run away with this easily). But this has been true before, and he didn't deliver. Luckily (or unluckily given the potential), we're not here for points, so we can simply enjoy our first ever Grand Tour and I plan to do so no matter how it goes.
Due to race clashes, we can't bring a full team of 8, and no real sprinter either outside of El Sabbahi. Madrazo's role as a favorite should theoretically prevent us from being in breakaways, but it would be nice to see one of the Mugishas early or Eyob later on try their luck. Maybe #71 on the start list for Madrazo is low enough, we'll see.
Anyway. Looking forward to this a lot! Good luck to everyone fighting for big points here. Would love to see Meintjes do well.
It's a runaway startlist for Lecuisinier, but that could also be a problem for him, as why would any team help with the chase. Lecuisinier will comfortably win the GC, but in terms of stage hunting I suspect loads of breakaway wins. I settled for Tao here hoping for a Top10, and that should be very much possible. The likes of Petelin or Jaramillo need to start attacking though in this race to make it successful, and with the likes of Andersen and Chlorella we have further interesting attack options.
I thought about bringing Gaviria or Phinney, but they just have too few race days sadly. Will be very interesting to see Demare vs. Grosu vs. Yates!
This is Grosu's big chance to turn his season around. But, given how things went so far, I'll probably have to settle for him being present in the sprints and actually scoring some points.
It's a runaway startlist for Lecuisinier, but that could also be a problem for him, as why would any team help with the chase. Lecuisinier will comfortably win the GC, but in terms of stage hunting I suspect loads of breakaway wins.
Kinda suspect the same but as long as he dominates the GC im more or less fine with that. This is one of two races all season long that i desperately want to win and i would rather have a somewhat unspectacular victory than a bigger scoring 2nd place performance here (as long as the scoring is large enough that we dont get in relegation worries )
The support lineup for Lecuisinier is very similar to what Taaramae had last year (or what Lecuisinier had last season at Festina). Four latvian climbers, two more solid foreign climbers and then one rouleur. Nothing outstanding but should be strong enough to control the race. Especially if Vosekalns and Blums will be as strong as in last years Vuelta.
Can't wait for this one! Thanks for the preview. Looking at the startlist, it does look like the final spot on the podium is up for grabs. I sent Barguil with a solid support team around him, but he doesn't really separate from the other podium contenders. I'll hope for a top-5 here.
Our worst lineup for a GT. Hoping for lucky breaks mostly.
Was also hoping for hilly sprints, but seeing how Van Stayen and Van der Sande perform together I've lost all hope for that. Congrats on the forst victory cio!
Really hope Lecuisinier get the race everyone expect here.
For our chances, must admit I don't rate them Seeing the startlist, this was the race were we probably should have brought Preidler as our stage hunter and thus also bring home a decent GC. Amezawa I suspect will be a little "light" regarding just that, but maybe he can pull off a stage win, which would be huge. Then we've got Dainese, who on his day, can be brilliant, as he has shown glimpses of so far this season. Really hope he get to sprint regularly here, if so, he'll be fun to follow, challenging for stage top 5s.
Gayral already doing what we love to see: Aggressive riding and taking KOM for a day, even close to taking white (shame he couldn't hang on). Lovely opener, though the sprint finish was kinda clapped.
Poisitve surprise to see Dainese contest that stage, thought it was more for the punchy sprinters, given the profile. Nice to have Stokbro fight for the early KoM points. Fingers crossed he can continue doing so on the upcoming flat stages.
Doesn't sound like much but I'm actually quite happy with El Sabbahi in 22nd place. It (hopefully) shows that he's at least somewhat close to the front near the finish, and maybe without GC riders in the mix that might be enough to sneak into the Top 10 here or there.
Congrats to cio, Demare just doing Demare things, it's wild how consistent he is in GTs (eventhough the stage was of course pretty perfect for him).
Wow, what a surprise! Got optimistic for a good stage result when he got Demare's wheel early, but to then do everything right and take the win, is amazing. A great, great start to the Giro, hoping Dainese can continue to challenge in the sprints.
)
Got optimistic for a good stage result when he got Demare's wheel early, but to then do everything right and take the win, is amazing. A great, great start to the Giro, hoping Dainese can continue to challenge in the sprints.
