Giro d'Italia 2017 Preview

After the recent tragic death of former Giro champion and Italian cycling legend, Michele Scarponi, one can expect many special touches in this year's 100th edition of the Giro d'Italia. The most notable of which is the dedication of stage 16's Mortirolo climb in honour of Scarponi. The Astana team management have also decided not to replace Scarponi, who would've been their team leader and potential General Classification contender. They'll be starting the race with only 8 riders, but we can expect some serious Italian passion and many breakaway attempts from the boys in blue, in memory of their former team mate.

The Route

The 100th edition of the Giro d'Italia kicks off the Grand Tour season with some island hopping as the first three stages take the peloton across Sardinia, followed by two stages on Sicily, where the first real test for the climbers will take place with a category 1 uphill finish into Etna on stage 4, before heading over to mainland Italy as the race continues from Reggio Calabria (at the tip of the boot) on stage 6. From here the race heads northwards through Italy into the big mountains from stages 16-20 and finishing off with a second Time Trial into Milan.

The Contenders

General Classification: Pink Jersey (Maglia Rosa)

Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana are undoubtedly the two hot favourites for the Maglia Rosa in Milan. Both have had a good buildup to the Giro this year and being former champions they'll want to add to their pink jersey tallies. That said, I believe the final time trial stage could be an achilles heel for both of them (having lost valuable time on other stronger ITT specialists before). Just how much of a buffer Nibali and Quintana can build up in the big mountain stages in the last week of the tour could be a defining moment for the General Classification winner.

With his rather topsy turvy outing in last year's Giro, Steven Kruijswijk will be hoping to lay his claim to the pink jersey pursuit. He had a comfortable 3 minute lead on stage 19 in 2016, only to be undone by a misjudged snow capped descent of the Colle dell’Agnello, resulting in his eventual fourth place finish. I'm backing Kruijswijk for another competitive showing in the latter stages this year, and if his downhill skills are up to scratch I expect great things from him!



Tom Dumoulin will be salivating at his pink jersey opportunities with two Individual Time Trial stages to look forward to. Since his great showing in the early part of last year's Giro he's been training hard to translate his time trial abilities into more of a GC rider style. I expect him to feature a lot during the first half of the tour again, but whether or not he'll be able to hold pace with the pure climbers of the peloton in the big mountains is still to be seen. If he can limit his losses in the last week he may be in with a realistic shot at the Maglia Rosa with a strong time trial finish into Milan.

Team Sky are hedging their bet this year and taking a two-pronged approach with co-leaders Geraint Thomas and Mikel Landa. Thomas has shown some good form so far this season, winning the recent Tour of the Alps. My logic says he's going to be Sky's main hope to don the pink, with Landa playing some strategic attacking and support roles to help break the other climbers when the road gets steep - somewhat reminiscent of Movistar's regular Valverde/Quintana combo.

Other notable riders to watch out for in the General Classification are Ilnur Zakarin, Bauke Mollema, Thibaut Pinot, Adam Yates, Domenico Pozzovivo, Bob Jungels, Tejay van Garderen, amongst others. All these riders will be ready to pounce at a moment's notice if a Kruijswijk-esque incident occurs again.

Sprinters: Red Jersey (Maglia Rossa)

Andre Greipel. Need I say more?... The Gorilla has shown his class at the finish line time and time again and he'll surely be adding to his tally of six Giro stage victories this year.

Giacomo Nizzolo will be aiming for a third straight red jersey finish this year. His form is a bit of an unknown factor as he's only recently gotten back to racing after a bout of knee tendinitis, but never discount him on home soil, especially as he'll still be sporting the Italian Champion colours.

Fernando Gaviria and Caleb Ewan have also been looking in hot form so far this year and will be giving Greipel and Nizzolo a fair challenge towards the line on the six flatter stages. Some other notable riders who will likely be putting their hands up for the red jersey are Sacha Modolo, Jakub Mareczko, Phil Bauhaus, Kristian Sbaragli, amongst others.

Climbers: Blue Jersey (Maglia Azzurra)

This one's always a bit tougher to predict as a successful breakaway on a single big mountain day can drastically change the swing of things. However, Omar Fraile, the current two-time Vuelta a España Mountains Classification winner will surely show his tenacity on the bigger climbing stages.

A few other riders to keep an eye out for when they head into the mountains are Mikel Landa (bound to get into the action when he helps Thomas) Alexander Foliforov, Pierre Rolland, Stefano Pirazzi, Giovanni Visconti and of course the rest of the GC contenders who'll be at the forefront of the race in the mountain stages.

The Game

The object of the game is to pick four riders for each stage for which you'll earn fantasy style points based on their riding performances.

Keep an eye out for the new Stage Info section on the Play page (currently on desktop only) which provides some detailed information for the Intermediate Sprints and categorized climbs for each stage. This should help to guide your picks along the way.



We've grouped the top riders based on their relative skills for each stage. Unlike previous years, we'll be presenting a unique set of bands for each stage, tailored to the specific nature of the stage. The first and last bands will always be for GC contenders and possible wildcard picks, where as the middle two bands will focus more on sprinters for on the flatter stages, sprinters and climbers on the hilly stages and solely on climbers for the big mountain stages. This aims to make the picks more applicable for each stage than before (not much point in picking a sprinter who won't place well on the monstrous stage 18 through the Dolomites).

So now that all the nitty-gritty is out there, who do you think is going to feature at the Giro this year? The first stage starts on Friday 5 May at 12:25 CEST. Head on over to the Giro d'Italia Play page and get your picks in asap.