The 2012 Giro d’Italia marks the beginning of the Grand Tour period. With key riders missing from certain team line-ups and a route as challenging as ever it will be a difficult three weeks for all concerned.
Although maybe not as ‘radical’ as the 2011 route, this year’s Giro d’Italia will surely be one of the highlights of 2012 and should be the first true reference point for the top riders aiming at Yellow and Gold later in the year.
The Race
The stage one ITT looks to be a fairly technical route so we are unlikely to see General Classification riders putting in 100 percent here for fear of succumbing to crashes.
The first maglia rosa will be worn by the bravest of the riders.
With the likes of Alessandro Pettachi and Andre Griepel not starting the event, and an early day off following the first two sprints, Cavendish and Goss will be looking forward to the flat finishes even more.
A final Individual Time Trial of 30.1km through Milan finishing in the Piazza Duomo should be merely academic but that’s easy to say without having experienced the previous three weeks of hard racing.
Who to watch?
The GreenEDGE 2012 Giro d’Italia team will be targeting stage wins rather than the overall General Classification. Matt Goss is a real contender for the red jersey in the points classification, if the team can get him through the highest mountain passes.
A solid Tour of Turkey by Goss, and a powerhouse lead-out train including Brett Lancaster, Tomas Vaitkus and Jens Keukeleire will help him hit the ground strong. With Daryl Impey, Christian Meier, Fumiyuki Beppu and Svein Tuft making up the rest of the team, it’s hard to find any particular stages that the GreenEDGE boys won’t be featured in.
Other riders who will be testing Goss in the sprints include Vacansoleil-DMC’s Romain Feillu who wore the Tour de France’s yellow jersey for a day in 2008, but has never won a Grand Tour stage. Another is Garmin Barracuda’s Tyler Farrar, who has become very adept at finishing second behind Mark Cavendish over the last couple years.
Last but not least, the World Champion himself Mark Cavendish. With Tour de France green and Olympic gold on the hit list for later in the year, Cavendish likely will be using this race to merely put his competition in the pain cave. It’s unclear whether he’s aiming to make it to Milan, instead possibly choosing to bail out before expelling too much energy.
The lack of Griepel and Pettachi may water down the competition, but the main contenders will need to keep their eyes peeled for some of the outsiders trying to spoil the red jersey party.
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