Giro d'Italia 2022: Preview, schedule, stars to watch
Who are the top riders to watch out for at the 2022 Giro? How long is it, and what are the key stages during the three-week race? Find out in our preview.
Cycling Road
The first road cycling men's Grand Tour of the 2022 season, the 105th Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy), gets underway in Budapest, Hungary, on Friday 6 May with prior champions Tom Dumoulin and Richard Carapaz, along with previous podium finishers Miguel Angel Lopez and Simon Yates, all eyeing the winner's pink jersey, or maglia rosa
Last year's champion Egan Bernal will not be defending his title after he suffered a serious training crash at the beginning of the year in Colombia.
For the 14th time in the race's history, the Giro will not start on Italian soil. Four years after the last foreign departure in Jerusalem Hungary's capital Budapest will host the beginning of the race. Budapest was meant to stage the 2020 Grande Partenza but the race was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Riders will complete 3,445.6 kilometres with a total of 50,580 metres of climbing across 21 stages, finishing on 29 May in Verona, like in four previous occasions (1981, 1984, 2010 and 2019). As seen in four of the last five editions of the Giro, the final stage will be a time trial, instead of the winner's procession normally seen in the Tour and Vuelta.
Giro 2022 General Classification men to watch
Some 176 riders – eight each from 22 teams – will take to the start line in Budapest.
In addition to the 18 UCI WorldTour teams, UCI ProSeries team Alpecin-Fenix will take part in the 105th Giro, as too will three Italian wild card squads.
Three previous winners headline the 2022 race.
2013 and 2016 champion Vincenzo Nibali, who will turn 38 in November, is expected to help his Astana Qazaqstan teammate Lopez, who finished third in 2018 and is looking to redeem himself after two difficult seasons with Movistar Team.
Another rider seeking to recover past form is 2017 winner and two-time Olympic medallist Dumoulin, leader of the Jumbo-Visma team, who took a break from the sport in early 2021.
INEOS Grenadiers will look for their fourth Giro title in the last five years and their best hopes lie on the shoulders of 2019 champion Carapaz: the Ecuadorian made the podium at last year's Tour de France
Also on the radar are 2018 La Vuelta winner Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange - Jayco), UAE Team Emirates's Joao Almeida, who was fourth and sixth in the last couple of years, and two-time Tour de France podium finisher and recent Tour of the Alps winner Romain Bardet (Team DSM).
Other key riders at Giro 2022
One of the stars to watch will be Mathieu van der Poel of the Alpecin-Fenix team. The multi-talented rider makes his debut in the Giro a few weeks after winning his second Tour of Flanders.
Eyes will also be on former world champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who at 42 years of age wants to leave a mark in his final appearance.
Eritrea's 22-year-old Biniam Girmay will race the Corsa Rosa for the first time as he seeks even more history after making headlines at the Gent-Wevelgem.
The sprinters will hope to shine too on the flat stages. Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal), Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Israel-PremierTech) should all be in the mix for the points leaders' cyclamen jersey.
Giro 2022 route and important stages
The 2022 Giro d'Italia route includes two individual time trials for a total of 26.3km, which is the lowest amount in any Giro since 1963.
Hungary will host the first three stages before the entire circus moves to Sicily and then to the Italian mainland.
Six of the 21 stages will finish at the top of climbs. They are: Etna (4), Blockhaus (9), Cogne (15), Aprica (16), Lavarone (17) and Marmolada (20).
Stage 16 will feature 5,550 metres of climbing with the gruelling Santa Cristina (13.5km with an average gradient of 8%) being the most severe ascent.
The 2,239m-high Pordoi Pass on stage 20 will be the Cima Coppi, the tallest mountain pass of the race.
Day-by-day route of 2022 Giro d'Italia
6 May: Budapest-Visegrad (195 km)
7 May: Budapest-Budapest (Time trial, 9.2km)
8 May: Kaposvar-Belatonfured (201 km)
9 May: Rest day
10 May: Avola-Etna (166 km)
11 May: Catania-Messina (172 km)
12 May: Palmi-Scalea (192 km)
13 May: Diamante-Potenza (198 km)
14 May: Napoli-Napoli (149 km)
15 May: Isernia-Blockhaus (187 km)
16 May: rest day
17 May: Pescara-Jesi (194 km)
18 May: Santarcangelo di Romagna-Reggio Emilia (201 km)
19 May: Parma-Genova (186 km)
20 May: Sanremo-Cuneo (157 km)
21 May: Santena-Torino (153 km)
22 May: Rivarolo Canavese-Cogne (177 km)
23 May: rest day
24 May: Salo-Aprica (193 km)
25 May: Ponte di Legno-Lavarone (165 km)
26 May: Borgo Valsugana-Treviso (146 km)
27 May: Marano Lagunare-Santuario di Castelmonte (178 km)
28 May: Belluno-Marmolada (Passo Fedala)
29 May: Verona-Verona (Time trial, 17.1km)