Sir Jim Ratcliffe may be drawn to Old Trafford’s Theatre of Dreams as he closes on Manchester United. But in Italy, the Eternal City awaits his Ineos Grenadiers cycling team, which begins the 106th Giro d’Italia on Saturday.
Since 2019, Ratcliffe’s riders have not won the Tour de France, but the Italian Giro has been a more fruitful hunting ground, with victories by the Londoner Tao Geoghegan Hart in 2020 and the Colombian superstar Egan Bernal the following year.
The 2023 Giro begins with an individual time trial on Italy’s Adriatic Trabocchi coast and ends in Rome on Sunday, May 28. During these three weeks, there will be numerous classified climbs, six high mountain stages, and two additional time trials, with the final “race of truth” occurring on the penultimate stage.
In recent seasons, Ineos Grenadiers has changed from Ratcliffe’s powerful Team Sky. Chris Froome, the four-time Tour de France champion, is long gone, Nicolas Portal, the team’s charismatic sports director, passed away in 2020, and Sir Dave Brailsford, who was once a fixture on the team coach, rarely attends races these days.
However, the British-owned team has been very active in the races this spring, highlighted by Geoghegan Hart’s assured victory in the Tour of the Alps, a recent Giro tune-up.
The Giro begins with the same lineup, plus former world-time trial champion Filippo Ganna.
Unlike the Team Sky era, however, leadership responsibilities remain fluid. Geoghegan Hart and Geraint Thomas, who finished third in last year’s Tour de France, are among the eight riders.
The Welshman begins alongside Geoghegan Hart and, with more than 60 kilometers of time-trialing to be raced. He will be hoping for a high finish in Rome after a “stop-start” early season.
Thomas stated, “I’m on the right track and getting into shape just in time.” Morale is high after a great training camp in the Sierra Nevada and a successful Tour of the Alps.
Thomas has been eliminated from the last two Giros. He left the race in 2017 after being hit by a police motorbike. In 2020, he fractured his hip after suffering a fall. As Thomas recuperated at home, his replacement, Geoghegan Hart, rode through the peloton’s ranks to win the race.
Thomas was satisfied with his 15th-place finish at the Tour of the Alps in support of Geoghegan Hart at 36.
In his maiden Grand Tour, Astana Qazaqstan’s Mark Cavendish will watch for the Giro’s flat finishes. He will try to win his first Giro stage on Sunday in San Salvo without a lead-out squad.
There are several notable absences. Tadej Pogacar, who is recovering from a fractured wrist, will not compete in this year’s Giro.
Instead, he is concentrating on the Tour de France, as is the incumbent Tour champion, Jonas Vingaard.
In the three-week race, Geoghegan Hart and Thomas will face the serial victors and pre-Giro favorites Remco Evenepoel, the 2022 Vuelta an Espana champion, and Primoz Roglic, the multiple-time Vuelta champion.
Evenepoel claimed the one-day Liège-Bastogne-Liège Classic and the early-season UAE Tour, while Roglic won Tirreno-Adriatico and the Volta a Catalunya. Due to their battle in Catalonia’s highlands and hills, the rest of the peloton, including Ineos Grenadiers, finished second.
Their rivalry is anticipated to be the focal point of the Giro d’Italia over the three weeks of a race that traverses terrain ranging from the Adriatic to the Apennines, Switzerland to the Dolomites, and is typically subject to changeable weather.
Thomas will likely stay behind the favourites before the Giro’s most punishing final week, like he did last July. The penultimate time trial, to Monte Lussari’s dangerous summit, climbs 7.3 kilometres with grades up to 15%.
This stage will bring back unpleasant memories for Roglic, who infamously collapsed on a very similar route after the 2020 Tour de France, handing the overall victory to his Slovenian teammate Pogacar. He will be praying that lightning doesn’t strike twice, while Thomas plans to be in contention during the final week.
