Giro d’Italia, first stage: Vingegaard and Pellizzari protagonists

It’s that time of year, finally. A pink thread that unites everything, an incalculable number of stories to tell, a quantity of emotions impossible to keep in check: they run very fast, just like contemporary bicycles. Here it is, the Giro d’Italia, the country’s true popular novel since 1909: capable like nothing else of entering people’s hearts and breaking down borders, arriving where it seemed impossible. The 109th edition demonstrates this perfectly: for the first time in history it starts today from Nessebar, Bulgaria, on the shores of the Black Sea, to end on Sunday 31 May in via del Circo Massimo in Rome, in the heart of great beauty. Jonas Vingegaard has had it in his head for months, Giulio Pellizzari started thinking about it a year ago. From different perspectives, their heads are crowded with dreams: they have three weeks and a little more time to realize them.

History

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If victory rhymes with history, everything is more exciting. Jonas Vingegaard knows it: he made his debut at 29 years old and on his business card he is the only one in the world who can write that he beat Tadej Pogacar at the Tour de France, and twice. Not even the Slovenian champion, dominator in the squad in 2024 and now absent, has the triple crown of those who have triumphed in the Giro, Tour and Vuelta on his mind: if Jonas wore the rose in Rome, in this sense he would be ahead of him. “I needed this new challenge,” he told us, and the twinkle in his eye glimpsed at the presentation in Burgas on Wednesday evening only confirmed it. He has everything to dominate, but Giulio Pellizzari is the first to want to stop him: at 22 it’s not too early to think big, it never is. “Not even Vingegaard is unbeatable,” he said without arrogance, no later than – himself – Wednesday evening. Italy hasn’t been on the podium since Damiano Caruso’s second place in 2021, they haven’t triumphed since Vincenzo Nibali 2016: the Marche native starts with a step on the podium in mind, whatever it may be. Then who knows. From Bernal to Adam Yates, from Gall to O’Connor, from Buitrago to Mas to Arensman and Storer, there is no shortage of actors who aspire to earn center stage.

Faces

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The framework for all this is a tough, modern, balanced route, the latest conceived by Mauro Vegni in the role of director: those who know how to work with numbers have in mind the 21 stages, the three days of rest, the 3466 kilometers with 48,700 meters of altitude difference. Those who prefer places know that in Bulgaria especially the wind factor could disrupt plans, and that from the Italian restart on Tuesday the Gazzetta race will immediately find the warm embrace of the South, starting from Catanzaro without forgetting Naples, present for the fifth time in a row. The Blockhaus that hinted at what a certain Eddy Merckx could do uphill will not make any concessions, the completely flat Tuscan time trial – after the Marche Walls and the Corno alle Scale test – will last over 45 minutes and will write gaps. All before in the second week – closed by the sprint in Milan, which returns to the finish line after five years – and above all in the third, the toughest mountains put everyone in their place. With the Cima Coppi totem placed on the Giau Pass just two days after the apotheosis of Rome, immediately before the Friulian day which will remember the devastating earthquake of 1976: one of the great powers of the Giro d’Italia is that of shared memory, the innate ability to act as a bridge between past, present and future.

Passions

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The Italian support will not only have Pellizzari to dedicate to: from Jonathan Milan (highly anticipated already today) to Ganna and Ciccone, the negative record of only one stage success in 2025 – as already in 2017 – should not arise again. But what is striking is the absence of a script already written and taken for granted, despite having recognized Vingegaard as the great favourite. Around the Dane – he would be the first from his country to triumph – there is a very strong Visma, but Pellizzari’s Red Bull is no less, starting with someone who has already managed to win the Giro (2022) after coming close to it (2nd in 2020), namely Jai Hindley. Recent history abounds with direct Denmark-Italy comparisons: Pedersen snatched the 2019 World Cup from Trentin, the Italian quartet (Ganna-Milan-Consonni-Lamon) won the Olympic gold in 2021 against the Danes. What if this Giro constituted another chapter? Yes, that time of year has arrived – we couldn’t wait.