From Vingegaard to Pellizzari, Giro d'Italia starts for the first time in Bulgaria

For this triptych, which will end on Sunday 10 May in Sofia, the organisers are expected to collect around 3 million per stage from the Bulgarian government. In short, around ten million, which is not bad in these moonlight conditions. And considering that the Giro's prize money is around 1.6 million euro. After all, Bulgaria, although it does not yet use the euro (the current currency is the lev), has been in the European Union since 2007. And so, despite some understandable perplexity, let's turn our noses up at it and see how it turns out. Let's just say that these first three stages, which are not very demanding, are a good showcase for sprinters and brave passers-by. As for the bigs, given that a lashing wind is blowing, they will have to above all watch out for the fans and the usual crashes of the first fractions in order to arrive at their best on Sunday evening in Calabria, from where the real Giro d'Italia will begin on Tuesday 12 May, with the 138-kilometre Catanzaro-Cosenza.

That said, which Giro will it be? And who are the favourites?

In terms of difficulty, on paper it is more or less the same as last year's: that is, a tough Giro, with eight uphill finishes spread over 50,000 metres of altitude difference.

As for the favourite, there is no headache to be had. Lacking Tadej Pogacar, this edition's stone guest, the obligatory candidate for the pink jersey is 29-year-old Dane Jonas Vingegaard, already winner of two Tour de France (2022 and 2023) and a Vuelta in 2025. Jonas, as you know, having also won two second places in the Tour, is the only one who has so far managed to make Pogacar sweat in the French race, where moreover the Slovenian has triumphed four times. In recent years, however, partly due to a bad crash in the Basque country, Vingegaard has been less brilliant than usual, especially compared to Pogacar's increasingly explosive growth.

Now, however, the Visma captain, also known as the Fisherman King because he used to work at the Hanstholm fish market in the summer as a boy, seems to be back to his old glory. In the spring, he dominated Paris-Nice and the Tour of Catalonia, showing how he is back on top in stage races.

In addition, the Dane will be supported by a top-class team (Kuss, Kalderman, Piganzoli) that will do everything in its power to enable him to also conquer the famous 'Triple Crown' in the pink race, a prestigious accolade that is awarded to those who have inscribed their name in the roll of honour of the Tour, Giro and Vuelta. Only seven champions have so far achieved this: Anquetil, Gimondi, Merckx, Hinault, Contador, Nibali and Froome. In other words, the Gotha of cycling history. A hat-trick that Vingegaard, this time, can conquer before Pogar, since the Slovenian phenomenon in Spain has not yet signed his name. The Dane knows that this is the right time to make his mark and so, even if he keeps a low profile in keeping with his shy nature ('Am I favourite? Well, there are many of us who are favourites...'), he will certainly aim for the pink jersey and then cross swords at the Tour with Pogacar.

To say that Jonas has already won would be a gamble. In a three-week race, surprises are always just around the corner (last year on the penultimate stage, the Briton Simon Yates overturned all predictions by overtaking Del Toro and Carapaz). Moreover, the competition has a few arrows in its bow.

Before arriving in Rome, Vingegaard will have to contend with the Colombian Bernal and Simon's twin brother, namely that Adam Yates, who in this Tour is the captain of Uae, the number one team in the world that usually escorts Pogacar in his triumphs. It's useless: even if he's not there, we always end up talking about the Slovenian phenomenon, who this year, having dominated the spring classics, will try to conquer the Tour for the fifth time and, sooner or later, the Vuelta as well.

Returning to the Giro d'Italia, among the candidates for the pink, or at least the podium, is our Giulio Pellizzari who, slowly, at 22 years of age, seems to be growing steadily. In the last edition he finished sixth, after having acted as domestique to Primoz Roglic. This year, after his fresh success at the Tour of the Alps, the Marche-born rider is appearing as captain of Red Bull, one of the strongest teams in the world. Giulio, more optimistic than usual ("I want to win the Giro sooner or later.") will be able to count on the help of the Englishman Hindley, already pink jersey in 2022. Now: although we should not get our hopes up too high, Pellizzari is our only hope for the classification. Remembering that we have been missing the podium since 2021 (Damiano Caruso), this would be a good opportunity to not just be spectators. We will see. In addition to Pellizzari, we can only count on the usual Filippo Ganna (for the time trials) and Jonathan Milan, the excellent sprinter from Friuli who can already impose himself in the sprint in Bulgaria.

There is no rejoicing. The last Italia to win the Giro was Vincenzo Nibali in 2016. Ten years is a long time. Even in the classics, we hardly ever touch the ball. Our cycling, like Italia football, is experiencing one of its worst moments. But they are still, in spite of everything, the two most popular sports: understanding what has happened in recent years would already be a good step towards getting out of this endless crisis.