2024 Giro d’Italia Preview

The 2024 Giro d'Italia will test some of the world's best riders to their limits. The 21 stage race starts on Saturday May 4, finishing in Rome three weeks later. Cycling journalist Max Leonard previews the challenging route and names the riders to watch out for.

The route

The 107th edition of the Giro d’Italia begins on Saturday 4 May in Turin and finishes at the Colosseum in Rome on Sunday three weeks later. In between, it traverses 3400.8km / 2113.1 mi and climbs 44,650m / 146,500 ft around Il Bel Paese, heading anti-clockwise around the country. It travels down the western side as far as Pompei, then across and up the Adriatic Coast towards a final week filled with the testing mountain roads of the eastern ranges of the Alps, before a flight transfer for the final stage in Rome.

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The average stage length is 161.9km / 100.6 mi, and, unusually, the race contains two relatively long individual time trials. Stage 7 from Foligno to Ponte Vallecepi is 40.6km / 25.2 mi long, ending in a 274 vertical-metre (899 ft) climb; Stage 14, meanwhile, runs from Castiglione delle Stiviere 31.2 km / 19.4 mi to Desenzano del Garda, on the famous lake, and is flat, with a slight net downhill from start to finish.

Overall, the course looks set to provoke a very attacking race, with relatively short stages, and climbs from Stage 1 and the first summit finish on Stage 2 at the Santuario di Oropa. Stage 6 features some of the Tuscan white gravel roads made famous by the Strade Bianche one-day race – always a spectacle – and Stage 8 in the Apennines is the race’s first full mountain stage. The mountain highlights, however, come after a quiet middle week, in a fiendishly difficult last few days that are crowned by two ascents of Monte Grappa in the penultimate stage.

The riders

There’ll be plenty of breakaways and riders going for individual stages – which should make up for the expected lack of competition in the fight for the overall leader’s maglia rosa. Team UAE’s young maestro Tadej Pogačar is attempting the Giro-Tour double this year, and – let’s be honest – there is nobody on the start sheet with the talent or the form to stop him.

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Last year’s winner, Visma–Lease a Bike’s Primož Roglič, has opted for the Tour de France this year, and the true GC battle will probably be for second place. Ineos Grenadiers’ Geraint Thomas, second in 2023, will probably be first among Pogačar’s chasing pack. On his heels will be other team leaders like AG2R’s Ben O’Connor, Israel–Premier Tech’s Mike Woods, Team dsm–firmenich PostNL’s veteran Romain Bardet and Bora–Hansgrohe’s Dani Martinez scrapping for podium places and stage wins.

Visma–Lease a Bike’s ingénu Cian Uijtdebroeks might be the one to watch as a talent emerging onto the biggest stage, after team-mate Wout van Aert pulled out due to injury.

Riders to follow:

The Giro d'Italia starts on Saturday May 4 and finishes on Sunday May 26. Be sure to follow the Giro club for the latest updates and information on the race.