history
Milano
The lights on the Giro d’Italia 2023 come on and the suggestions that make it a special event are back. On the stage of the Teatro Lirico di Milano, chosen for the presentation of the edition number 106, to do the honors is Jai Hindley, the king of the last edition who outclassed the Ecuadorian Carapaz and the Spanish Landa. «I have wonderful memories – says the Australian – and the unforgettable stop for me is Campo Imperatore».
The long applause melts Vincenzo Nibali, now an ex: “I am sincere, I observed this Giro while still a rider, perhaps I will work out the gap from racing at the beginning of next season”. Then he goes into detail: «It’s well designed, with a lively first part and from the second week you have to give your all, the mountains are scary».
The Giro hunt will start from Abruzzo, a tribute to the passion of this land: the opening time trial, Saturday 6 May, will take place on the “Via Verde” cycle path of the Costa dei Trabocchi up to Ortona. The second stage then, from Teramo to San Salvo, will be 204 km. And the third will start from Vasto. On 12 May we will return again to Abruzzo, with the uphill arrival on the Gran Sasso.
And it is here, in central Italy, that it will be decided who cannot win. It will be a less tough race. But lovers of two wheels are waiting to admire the class of Remco Evenepoel, the Belgian world champion, and Primoz Roglic, the Slovenian who could seek redemption after the Tour. Italy, on the other hand, awaits the decision of Filippo Ganna, the fastest runner in the world (apparently he has decided to participate).
On 18 May it will already be a show with the Bra-Rivoli and with the climb of Colle Braida. And it is already a battle in the thirteenth stage, from Borgofranco d’Ivrea to Crans Montana on May 19th, the only encroachment of this edition. The race will climb the Gran San Bernardo which, with its breathtaking landscape and its slopes, will be the Cima Coppi. From Piedmont we arrive at the Swiss town where Alberto Tomba hit the 50th victory in the World Cup in the farewell race of his career. The climbs will be the precious gems of this event. On 23 May we pass from Lombardy to Trentino on Mount Bondone. On Friday 26 the runners will face the Dolomite stage with the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. The group will have to cover 182 km with 5400 meters in altitude and start from Longarone: it will also be the stage of memory, where the Giro will commemorate the victims of the Vajont, 60 years after the tragedy.
The battle will be all in the 100 km that will precede the finish line: the runners will have to climb the Campolongo Pass, Valparola Pass to get to the Giau Pass. The stage will end with the climb up to the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, symbol of the Italian Dolomites where in 2013 there was the solo of Vincenzo Nibali who in that year won his first Giro in a snowstorm.
On May 27, the time trial with 1766 meters of altitude, the stage that crosses into Slovenia, will be the turn of the ascent of Mount Lussari. In the evening, the Giro will move to Rome: departure in Austria, in Klagenfurt and arrival by charter plane in the capital in the wake of the global event that is the Ryder Cup in golf, scheduled for the end of September. –