Giro d'Italia 2020
After a weird season, marked by the suspension of cycling races until summer, the Giro d'Italia was forced to postpone its race until October. More specifically, it will be held from October 3rd to 25th. The route will keep its 21 stages, but the organization has had to give up the "Grande Partenza" of Hungary, which will start on Saturday the 3rd of October in Sicily.
The race will be opened by a 16-kilometer individual time trial between the neighboring towns of Monreale and Palermo, in the northwest of the island. A day later they wait 150km between Alcamo and Agrigento with an uphill finish.
The third stage awaits the first mountain stage of the Giro, 150km between Enna and Etna with an unprecedented ending in Piano Provenzana at 1,775m altitude and after 18.2km at a 6.8% average climbing slope from the north side of the volcano. The fourth and last section in Sicily will be 138km between Catania and Villafranca Tirrena, with a route for sprinters.
The race will head towards northern Italy, where the cyclists will have to climb famous mountain passes such as Passo dello Stelvio, Colle dell Agnello, Sestriere, or Madonna di Campiglio among others.
Three time trial stages, located in the first, fourteenth and last stage, with a total of 65km, will give options to the specialists on the time trial.
Top competitors
Unfortunately, this edition of the Giro will overlap with the edition of Vuelta a España, and will have less than two weeks of rest after the Tour de France, which makes it very difficult for most of the best cyclists to compete in optimal conditions two of the three best races. Additionally, we must take into account the recent loss for the race of the very young Remco Evenepoel after falling in Giro do Lombardia, who with his 20 years old was shining at the start of the season.
Following the Ineos confirmation that Geraint Thomas will compete for the pink jersey, he could be considered a big favorite to the final victory in Milan. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), Rafal Majka (Bora), Simon Yates (Mitchelton), or Marc Soler (Movistar) will be other great favorites to win the final victory.