Giro d’Italia 2023 preview: Can anyone gatecrash the Remco Evenepoel v Primoz Roglic fight for pink?

In March, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) came out on top in his duel against Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) in the Volta a Catalunya – six months after the Belgian ended the Slovenian’s three-year reign in red at La Vuelta. In what was widely touted as a dress rehearsal for this year’s Giro d’Italia, just six seconds separated the two riders atop the Catalunya general classification, with both Roglic and Evenepoel winning two stages apiece and the former taking the overall crown by virtue of his six-second winning margin over the line on the Stage 5 summit finish at Lo Port.

Ad This May in Italy there will be seven summit finishes, some of which – Monte Bondone and Tre Cime di Lavaredo, for instance – are far tougher than the ascent of Lo Port; far tougher, indeed, than any of the summit showdowns in last year’s Vuelta, where Evenepoel came of age and became a maiden Grand Tour winner. Giro d'ItaliaFoss tips Roglic or Evenepoel for Giro glory — ‘completely different league’AN HOUR AGO But three individual time trials – for a total of 73km against the clock – will swing the pendulum back in the world champion’s favour.

And with news that Jumbo-Visma will be without three key climbers – Wilco Kelderman, Tobias Foss and Robert Gesink – owing to positive Covid tests, with one of those replacements (Josh van Emden) already replaced by Sam Oomen after a fourth positive, Roglic will have to put in a flawless ride over three weeks if he, at the age of 33, wins the pink jersey he came so close to winning in 2019. If either Roglic or Evenepoel put a foot wrong in a race that is expected to be hampered by persistent rain throughout the opening week, then a whole cluster of contenders – including British duo Geraint Thomas and Tao