Sprinters have long had their day at Grande Partenze of the Giro d’Italia, with opening stages throughout history often offering up something for the fast men and Mark Cavendish, Alessandro Petacchi and Robbie McEwan being among those to don the maglia rosa.
When you look at the favourites for the opening day of the 108th Giro, you would assume the sprinters had again been given priority to chase the first pink jersey, but it’s far from that simple, with the Albanian start presenting a tough, rolling 160km route from one of its oldest cities, Durrës, to the capital, Tirana.
Once the 184-rider peloton breaches Durrës’ walls built by the Byzantine Empire, they will head south, inland from the Adriatic Sea, which separates Albania and Italy, into Elbasan County, with three categorised climbs offering a chance for action to be ignited.
81.5km into the action comes the 12.9km ascent to the village of Gracen, which will serve as the first climb of the 2025 race. And the antipasto for the meat of the Tirana circuit and key double ascent up to Surrel, 11km from the finish on the Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit, which provides the perfect attacking launch pad.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) was highly touted to take pink for much of the five-month build-up, but revealed before the team presentation that illness had hampered his preparation, favourite status is now firmly with former world champion Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).
The Dane, one of the best Classics riders in the world, is riding his fourth Giro and should make it hard over the 6.9km climb, which averages 4.6% gradient but maxes out at a stinging 13%, before getting his team to put pain into the legs of his rivals ahead of sprinting to victory.
That scenario is one of many possible, of course, but Lidl-Trek proved to be at their best throughout the spring, and with fellow Classics expert Søren Kragh Andersen and rising talent Mathias Vacek to lead him out, Pedersen looks in a great position.
“We really believe in him that he could take the pink jersey already on the first stage,” Vacek told Cyclingnews on Wednesday. “We will do our best to help him achieve that.”
But don’t rule out Van Aert. Even on a bad day, he’s one of the very best riders in the world, and as Albanian pro Ylber Sefa put it to Sporza, “The Surrel climb is tailor-made for Van Aert. Its gradient is 3 to 5 per cent, so never really too steep.
“The long descent could certainly result in a sprint, and then Van Aert has a chance. If he has recovered sufficiently from his illness, of course.”
Pedersen isn’t the only fully fit, versatile sprinter at the start of the Giro, with the purer but more than capable sprinter teammate of Van Aert, Olav Kooij, also present, as is Kaden Groves for Alpecin-Deceuninck. The Australian, like the Dane, has one previous victory from the Giro, and has more than proved his ability to sprint after a tough hill arrives near the finale, especially at the Vuelta, where he’s won seven times.
But then there’s also the likes of 10-time Grand Tour stage winner Sam Bennett, who has been trying to return to his best with Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale.
The French team are relatively confident it will be a sprint on day one, with DS Luke Roberts stating: “There are a lot of teams hoping to make it a sprint there. I expect quite some activity [on the climbs], but with all riders coming in quite fresh, still quite a big bunch finish.
“It’s an interesting first stage. I expect that some teams will be defensive, with laying all their cards on the table being quite ambitious for the top GC riders so early.”
Bennett, while hungry as ever to win a first Grand Tour stage for some time, was less bullish about his pink potential, with the less complicated route from Alberobello to Lecce on the fourth stage looking a more attainable goal.
“It depends on how it’s raced, but it can be doable. But to be honest, we won’t know until we actually get there,” said the Irishman of stage 1.
“We’ll give it a go anyway. To wear pink, if you could achieve that, it would be a career highlight. But it’s very difficult, and a lot of riders want that. So I will target stage 1, but I think stage 4 will be the first main one.”
Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) is another potential favourite, as one of the rising stars of the peloton and a great young sprinter who’s shown solid climbing legs in the Classics. But his team, like Bennett’s, aren’t so sure about a bunch arriving in Tirana.
“It’s not an easy stage or an easy climb, not super hard, but for some sprinters it will be hard,” said Soudal QuickStep DS Geert Van Bondt to Cyclingnews on Thursday.
“It also will depend on how fast they go on the climb, of course. I think there will be movement because the GC guys will have to be in a good position, so it’s going to be very nervous towards that last climb on the circuit and difficult for the fast guys.
One of the pre-race favourites, Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), said that “I don’t see it [stage 1] being a GC day” on the eve of the race. But with the chaos and fear of losing time on day one, that could see the likes of UAE and Primož Roglič’s Red Bull team come to the fore and set tempo to ensure their leader isn’t caught out.
Especially as, with the 11km run for home being raced mainly on downhill, technical roads into the city, if there is a problem or you do miss a split, it will be very costly to return and could see a GC rider’s hopes take an early hit.
Soudal-QuickStep will nonetheless be hoping that Mikel Landa can crest it and descend safely to start his GC bid, and that Magnier can reach new heights and come up with the biggest win of his career to claim pink.
“Paul is in good shape, but it all depends on how fast they go up the climb. I think a lot of GC teams will put a hard pace because it’s a technical downhill after the climb,” continued the Belgian DS.
“After that, you have a few roundabouts, so everyone will fight for position. I think it will go very fast on the climb, and we have to see if Paul can hang on. If you’re not at the top with the bunch, then it’s going to be very difficult to come back, because everybody will keep on fighting in front. I think the legs will speak for him and other riders as well.”
While Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) hasn’t been to look at the circuit, on paper, it looks like a great day for him, as someone who can climb, descend and sprint quite well. But the unpredictability could also allow someone like Isaac Del Toro (UAE) to attack away late, or Filippo Fiorelli (VF Group Bardiani-CSF-Faizainè), who took the Strava KOM for the latter half of the Surrel climb to blast away – he’s got great history in the Balkan nation after all, having won the 2019 Tour of Albania.
It’s the kind of openness and opportunity for several different riders to win that the teams want, the organisers want, the fans want – for its unpredictability – and should set the tone for what looks set to be a very open and unpredictable Giro d’Italia GC race from Durrës all the way to Rome.
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Climbs
- Gracen (cat. 2) km. 83.7 (13.5km avg. 5.2%, max 11%)
- Surrel (cat. 3) km. 130.5
- Surrel (cat. 3) km. 152.7
Sprints
- Sprint 1 – Paper, km. 57.9
- Sprint 2 – Elbasan, km. 67
- Time bonus sprint – Sauk, km. 112
