Giro d'Italia 2024: Pogacar set to dominate race that has lost identity

It's an atypical Giro, one that's trying to keep up with the world of modern cycling without having fully understood it, and thinking it can do without some of its main prerogatives.

A Giro that will excite and inflame the squares of Italy, of this there is no doubt, because the love for two wheels from Italian fans is without ifs and buts.

As always, it will be a race of many colours, and, goodness me, blue is the one that will probably be least present with Damiano Caruso and Filippo Ganna trying to revive the glories of a movement that once was.

 All eyes will also be on Antonio Tiberi who, on his side, could give at least give the home fans something to cheer.

Favourites? There's only one

It's difficult to use the plural version of the word when speaking of favourites. There is only one. because only a cataclysm could deprive Tadej Pogacar of the Trofeo Senza Fine, the most beautiful of the trophies up for grabs not only in the world of cycling but in sport in general.

And so, the likes of Geraint Thomas, beaten last year by Primoz Roglic by a handful of seconds; Romain Bardet, second at this year's Liège behind Pogi; the in-form Ben O'Connor; and the returning former winner Nairo Quintana - why not? - will have the task of making the race more unpredictable.

A race that has lost some of its identity because it has decided to reduce the mountain kilometres and increase those which will be against the clock, which are almost entirely flat. In short, a tough Giro, but not too tough.

Perhaps for Pogacar, the Cannibal, convinced that he can repeat the feat of the late Marco Pantani, the last man to claim the Giro-Tour double (in 1998), it is best that way. When the times are tallied up at the end, however, the hope is that we will be wrong and apologise after witnessing a great show.

Let's see, therefore, what awaits us and, above all, on which days to keep your diary free to enjoy the most important stages of the Giro d'Italia 2024.

First week

After paying homage to the historic Grande Torino football team that was killed in a plane crash 75 years ago, tackling Superga - the sight of the crash - during the first stage, the second day is dedicated to Pantani, the Pirate, who on the climb towards the Sanctuary of Oropa (not by chance, called the Montagna Pantani in 2024), claimed one of his unforgettable comebacks 25 years ago.

The stage isn't a tough one, but on the eleven kilometres of a climb that has a maximum gradient of 13% and an elevation gain of 733 metres, if Pogacar wanted to assert his dominance right from the start, he could well do so.

The same goes for his opponents, who could try to catch him by surprise. The Cannibal, however, has shown time and again that he does not tolerate it when a cyclist - excluding Jonas Vingegaard - allows himself to put his own bike in front of his, which is why his fury, in the event of an attack by rivals, could be even more striking.

What is certain is that on the first time trial scheduled for Friday, May 10th between Foligno and Perugia, Pogi's rivals have the advantage of not having to challenge him face-to-face, but instead over 40 kilometres against the clock almost all without any major difficulties, except perhaps for the half kilometre at 12% (with peaks of 16%) that the riders will climb six kilometres from the finish.

The next day, the first real uphill test will come, one of those that, as the always apt cycling saying goes, will not so much tell us who will win the Giro as who will not.

Yes, because in spite of the almost four thousand metres of altitude change, the climbs are not very hard, which is why those who will be in difficulty already on the Gran Sasso will not be able to look with great ambitions towards Rome, where the race will end on May 26th.

Second week

The second week begins with the first of two rest days (the second is scheduled for the following Monday) and the truth is that until Saturday 18 the terrain is fertile for big breakaways and sprinters.

The second time trial will be staged between Castiglione delle Stiviere and Desenzano sul Garda and, unlike the first, is completely flat: 31.2 kilometres where Filippo Ganna could make his power count.

From this point on, however, the road begins - finally! - to climb for real and for three consecutive stages, although an untimely rest day has been inserted between them

On Sunday, May 19th comes the longest stage of the 2024 edition of the race: 222 kilometres with a monstrous height difference of 5,400 metres.

This will be the first Alpine mountain stage on the Mortirolo which, although it will be tackled from the Monno side, has a respectable maximum gradient of 16%. Barring any surprises, however, it will be on the Passo di Foscagno that the top of the class will begin to move.

Third week

The 202 kilometres on Tuesday, May 21st (4,350 metres of altitude change) would certainly have hurt a lot more without the rest day. The same would have been true if the Cima Coppi (the tour's highest peak), set this year on the Stelvio, had not been included a good 150 kilometres from the finish.

And it is for this reason that, in all likelihood, to see the fireworks again we will have to wait until Wednesday, May 22nd when from Selva di Val Gardena they will arrive at the Brocon Pass at the end of a relatively short (159 kilometres) but explosive and very intense stage (4,200 metres of altitude change).

And if it is true that, officially, the winner of the Giro d'Italia 2024 will receive the Trofeo Senza Fine on Sunday, May 26th in Rome, it is equally true that those who still have something to say or to give will have to do so the day before on the slopes of Monte Grappa, whose 18 kilometres (at an average gradient of 8% with peaks of 14%) will be tackled twice before the finish in Bassano, where we will know the name of the winner of the race.

Or at least that is the plan of the organisers who, however, could be proved wrong by Tadej Pogacar who, even without pushing hard, could seal the deal many days earlier. That said, his presence is synonymous with spectacle, even if it is always the same rider who arrives first at the finish line that counts.