giro d'italia och tour de france

Giro d'Italia

Giro d'italia 2024.

Find out about the latest news, information, route details, contenders, and more from the first men's Grand Tour of the 2024 season

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• Dates 4 May - 26 May
• Race Length 3,331 kms
• Race Category Elite Men

Updated: 11 May 2024

Giro d'Italia stage 8: Tadej Pogačar doubles up with back-to-back wins

Another day, another win for the maglia rosa, as Tadej Pogačar powered to a second stage victory in as many days, this time at the summit finish at Prati di Tivo, and put more time between himself and his rivals in the process.

On the toughest mountain stage of the race so far his UAE Team Emirates teammates set a steady pace on the front of the peloton, reeling in a doomed breakaway on the final climb.

And as the gradients pitched up on the 14.5km Prati di Tivo the contenders for the stage win were whittled down to a select group of GC favourites. Despite strong showings from Dani Martínez, Geraint Thomas - much improved from his disappointing time trial - Ben O'Connor and Antonio Tiberi, there was only ever one likely victor and Pogačar duly pulled through to claim his third stage of the race so far.

Read more: Giro d'Italia stage 8: Tadej Pogačar triumphs again at Prati di Tivo summit finish

Giro d'Italia stage 7: Tadej Pogačar powers to TT victory

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) destroyed the field on the stage 7 time trial of the Giro d'Italia to extend his lead in the maglia rosa to nearly three minutes.

The Slovenian had to come from behind after Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) had set the fastest time at the first two checkpoints and then taken the provisional lead at the finish. But Pogačar raced up the final climb to win by 17 seconds as several of his GC rivals crumbled under the pressure.

Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) finished in the top 10 and moved into second overall, while Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) lost two minutes and dropped a place to third in the overall standings.

Read more: Giro d'Italia stage 7: Tadej Pogačar powers to TT victory taking time on Thomas and rivals

Giro d'Italia stage 6: Pelayo Sánchez wins three-up sprint after frantic gravel stage

Spanish youngster Pelayo Sánchez (Movistar) claimed the biggest win of his pro career on his Giro d'Italia debut as the peloton tackled an epic stage of climbs and white gravel roads in Tuscany, while race leader Tadej Pogačar had an unusually quiet day.

The relentless pace at this year's Giro d'Italia continued as attack after attack was reeled in, before a successful breakaway formed on the second of three gravel sectors.

That break would be whittled down over the remaining 42km and with the peloton rapidly approaching, the three survivors - Sánchez, Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) and GC contender Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) - battled for victory in a three-man sprint, with the Frenchman just pipped on the line and the Australian forced to settle for third.

Read more: Giro d'Italia stage 6: Pelayo Sánchez wins epic gravel stage ahead of Alaphilippe and Plapp

Giro d'Italia stage 5: Benjamin Thomas victorious as breakaway foils the sprinters

Stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia was supposed to be another day for the sprinters, but it ended in victory for France's Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) after a four-rider breakaway survived to the finish.

The day had been far from straightforward from the start, with Alpecin-Deceuninck resolving to make things hard on the first climb of the day, succeeding in making some of their rivals hurt but bringing back the early break in the process.

This left the door open for a second, stronger break to get away in the second half of the stage, and they were never to be seen again. Lidl-Trek tried to chase them down, but with little help from the other teams – including Alpecin – the judgement in the peloton proved to be off, and the break survived to the finish, with Thomas the fastest in the finale.

• Giro d'Italia stage 5: Benjamin Thomas takes a dramatic win from the breakaway
• Giro d’Italia: Kaden Groves points to 'help from motos' as breakaway survives on sprint stage
• Giro d'Italia: Sprint teams blast 'stupid' Alpecin-Deceuninck tactics

Giro d'Italia stage 4: Jonathan Milan powers to victory in downhill sprint

Much to the sprinters' delight, it was a second fast finish in a row on Tuesday's stage 4, though this time with a little more intrigue than stage 3's largely flat day.

As well as a challenging climb in the middle of the day, the Milan-San Remo-style day from Acqui Terme to Andora saw the short Capo Mele climb dropped into the final 5km, which threatened to disrupt the sprint.

In the end, a threatening attack did go on the climb, with Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) chipping off the front of the peloton with 4km to go, and it briefly looked like he may be able to take it to the line.

However, the motivated sprint trains were charging behind him, and on the fast, furious downhill run to the line, the team of Lidl-Trek pegged back the Italian, coming round him in the final kilometres and the sprint opened up.

It was Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) who hit the front first, taking it up from a long way out, but the length didn't trouble the super strong Italian who was able to hold off all of his competitors and storm to his first win of this years race, taking the lead in the sprints classification with it.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) finally had a quieter day, but remained in the race lead.

• Giro d'Italia stage 4: Jonathan Milan takes memorable sprint win

Giro d'Italia stage 3: Tim Merlier takes the win on first sprint day, as Pogačar and Thomas test legs in finale

Monday's third stage offered up the first sprint day of this year's Giro d'Italia after two tough days on the opening weekend, and the big field of sprinters were primed to go head to head for the first time.

After a calm start to the day – no breakaway went, with the peloton taking a chance to relax – there was a tense hour in the middle of the race when a group of sprinters went up the road and looked to be pushing on, but they were ultimately brought back.

The final 40km looked like it was leading into a conventional sprint finish, but a small kicker in the last 5km gave some riders other ideas, with Mikkel Honoré (EF Education-EasyPost) launching an opportunistic move that drew race leader Tadej Pogačar and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) into action, with the GC duo quickly going past the Dane.

This move briefly looked threatening, but ultimately even 2km was too long in the face of a charging, motivated mob of sprinters, and the pair was swept up in the final 500m.

After the fierce chase, it was a hectic sprint with not many lead-outs to be seen, and in the end it was Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) who emerged victorious to stamp his authority on the race's first bunch finish. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) took second and third, whilst Pogačar continues to lead the overall classification.

• Giro d'Italia stage 3: Tim Merlier takes chaotic win after Pogačar and Thomas go on the attack
• Giro d’Italia: Tadej Pogačar ‘is kicking my head in’ says Geraint Thomas

Giro d'Italia stage 2: Tadej Pogačar storms to victory and into race lead at first summit finish

It only took him two days, but after his visible disappointment at only coming third on stage 1, Tadej Pogačar threw down the gauntlet to all his rivals as he accelerated on the tough upper slopes of the Oropa to take his first ever Giro d'Italia stage win, and with it, the maglia rosa.

In a performance which echoed Marco Pantani's 25 years ago, the Slovenian suffered a near-identical mechanical and crashed at the foot of the final climb. But he recovered in sensational style to rejoin the peloton and launch his decisive attack with 4.5km to go.

Once he kicked up there was no stopping him completing the set of stage victories at all three Grand Tours, with his GC rivals toiling in his wake. Geraint Thomas and Dani Martínez took the minor places on the stage and moved onto the general classification podium 45 seconds behind Pogačar, while several others shipped more time.

• Giro d'Italia stage 2: Tadej Pogačar takes first summit finish and maglia rosa
• Puncture and crash no problem as Tadej Pogačar redefines Giro d'Italia GC at Oropa

Giro d'Italia stage 1: Jhonatan Narváez outsprints Tadej Pogačar to claim first leader's jersey

The 107th edition of the Giro d'Italia started with a short, punchy stage before the peloton tackles the real mountains, but it was still enough for overwhelming race favourite Tadej Pogačar to put time into his rivals.

His UAE Team Emirates distanced several GC hopefuls on the day's steepest climb, the Colle Maddalena, before the Slovenian launched an attack and bypassed the day's breakaway.

But it didn't all go his way as Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) latched onto his wheel and outsprinted him to the line, claiming his first maglia rosa and second-ever Giro stage win, while Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) pipped Pogačar to second place.

• Giro d'Italia stage 1: Jhonatan Narváez wins as Tadej Pogačar drops all his GC rivals - full report and results
• Giro d'Italia stage 1: Arensman and Bardet feel the force of Tadej Pogačar's shock and awe

Giro d'Italia 2024 overview

• Key information

First established back in 1909, around six years after the Tour de France , the Giro d'Italia is one of three Grand Tours on the calendar, and the first of the season.

While nothing can touch the Tour in terms of scale, the Giro has no shortage of prestige, with the maglia rosa (pink jersey) one of the most iconic and coveted prizes in professional cycling.

Read more: Giro d’Italia 2024: Essential race preview

The 2024 Giro d'Italia will be the 107th edition of the so-called ' corsa rosa ' and will take place from 4-26 May. The race will comprise 21 stages, with a mixture of mountains, time trials, flat terrain, and everything else Italy has to offer in a true test of a bike rider's all-round credentials.

© Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

Snowy mountains are part of the test for any pink jersey hopeful

While the Vuelta a España tends to throw up punchier terrain, the Giro d'Italia often plays host to some of the most gruelling stages you'll see in Grand Tour racing, with long days in the saddle and epic helpings of climbs in the Alps and Dolomites. The test is made harder by the weather, which is unpredictable in May, when rain can bucket down and where snow can still render some of the mountains unscalable.

Read more: The jerseys of the Giro d’Italia explained

The rider who comes through those three weeks in the shortest overall time will be crowned the winner and will get to lift the famous Trofeo Senza Fine - the 'infinite' spiralling golden trophy.

Giro d'Italia 2024 key information

When is the Giro d’Italia 2024? The 2024 edition of the Giro d’Italia will start on Saturday 4 May and run until Sunday, 26 May.

Where does the Giro d’Italia 2024 take place? The Giro d’Italia takes place in Italy, starting in Piemonte and finishing in Rome. The race heads south hugging the west coast, before nipping over to the east and heading up the opposite coast to the Alps, where the main mountain stages take place in the final week.

Who won the Giro d’Italia in 2023? The 2023 edition was won by Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), with the Slovenian taking the pink jersey from Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) in a dramatic penultimate-day mountain time trial on Monte Lussari.

How old is the Giro d'Italia? The Giro d'Italia was first held in 1909. The 2024 edition is the 107th.

Who won the first Giro d’Italia? Luigi Ganna was the first ever winner of the Giro d'Italia in 1909, winning three stages en route to the overall title. Ganna immortalised both himself and the tortuous race he had just won with six simple words, “Mi fa tanto male il culo!” or, “My ass hurts so much!”

Who has the most wins at the Giro d’Italia? Three riders stand at the top of the all-time honours list, with five victories each for Alfredo Binda, Fausto Coppi, and Eddy Merckx. They claimed their fifth titles, respectively, in 1933, 1953, and 1974.

Giro d'Italia 2024 route: Lots of time trialling, lighter on climbing and distance

The 2024 Giro d’Italia route will feature 68.2km of individual time trialling, six summit finishes, stages inspired by Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo , and a lighter touch.

The full route for the 107th edition of the corsa rosa was officially unveiled in Trento on October 13, with organisers RCS Sport rolling out a 3,321km journey that starts in Turin on 4 May and finishes, 21 stages and two rest days later, in Rome on 26 May.

Read more: A beginner’s guide to the Giro d’Italia

The headline news is that the Giro d’Italia has stuck to its guns as the most time trial-friendly of the three Grand Tours. The total distance against the clock of 68.2km – spread across two tests in weeks one and two – may be a couple of kilometres short of the 2023 total, but then the final TT there was on a mountain, whereas the terrain here is generally flat, tilting the balance in favour of the rouleurs.

That theme is reinforced by a relatively light helping of mountains, although there are still six summit finishes. Last year, those 70km against the clock were balanced out by a savage final week, but, while the high mountains are similarly backloaded in the 2024 route, there are simply not as many of them; the total elevation gain for the Giro as a whole is 42,900 metres, compared to 51,000m in the past two years.

© RCS Sport

The map for the 2024 Giro d'Italia route

It’s also interesting to note that the total distance for the Giro (3,321km) is the shortest since 1979. So while the 2023 edition was considered extreme in its dimensions, this is a Giro with a lighter touch.

That said, difficulties can arise in different places, and one of the standout elements of this Giro is that it’s the hardest start for some time. The opening stage takes riders over tough climbs around Turin, while the haul to Oropa on stage 2 is the earliest summit finish since Mount Etna in 1989. The opening week also features a mini versions of Milan-San Remo and a trip over the Tuscan gravel of Strade Bianche, although not in as big a dose as the dramatic previous visit in 2021.

The climbing may feel less extreme, but there are still some spectacular and savage mountains stages. There are three summit finishes before we even reach the half-way mark and a monster to end the second week on the Swiss border, measuring 220km with 5,200m of elevation. The mighty Stelvio opens the final week as the Cima Coppi – the highest point of the Giro – but the other critical mountain stages come afterwards and both feature double ascents, of the Passo Brocon on stage 17 and the fearsome Monte Grappa on stage 20.

Aside from the time trialling and the climbing, there is enough to go around the sprinters, with five clear-cut opportunities, including the finale in Rome. There are a few more opportunities, too, if they can survive the scattering of small hills in the first two weeks that will tempt the ambitious among the puncheurs.

For a full look at the route, including a breakdown of each of the three weeks, head to our route announcement page .

Giro d'Italia 2024 contenders: Tadej Pogačar makes his debut

The outright favourite for the maglia rosa, Pogačar wil go up against the likes of Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and Romain Bardet (dsm) for the overall title, while Jonas Vingegaard, Primož Roglič, and Remco Evenepoel have all decided to skip the Italian Grand Tour and focus on the Tour de France this July.

© Getty Images

Tadej Pogačar will start the Giro d'Italia in 2024 as the rider to beat

Which teams are racing the Giro d’Italia 2024?

The 2024 Giro d'Italia will comprise 22 teams, 18 of which are the WorldTour teams, and two of which are set to be the automatically-invited top two second-division ProTeams. That leaves two wildcard slots for the organisers to grant to teams of their choosing.

• AG2R Citroën
• Alpecin-Deceuninck
• Arkéa Samsic
• Astana Qazaqstan
• Bahrain Victorious
• Bora-Hansgrohe
• dsm-firmenich
• EF Education-EasyPost
• Groupama-FDJ
• Ineos Grenadiers
• Intermarché-Circus-Wanty
• Jayco AlUla
• Jumbo-Visma
• Soudal-Quick Step
• UAE Team Emirates
• Lotto Dstny (if they take up their invite)
• Israel Premier Tech (if they take up their invite)
• Wildcard invite

Giro d'Italia jerseys

Pink jersey (maglia rosa) – worn by the leader of the general classification, the rider with the lowest overall time.

Blue jersey (maglia azzurra) – worn by the leader of the mountains classification, with points awarded on all categorised climbs.

Purple jersey (maglia ciclamino) – worn by the leader of the points classification, which is based on finishing positions on all road stages. This is often a sprinter.

White jersey (maglia bianca) – worn by the best young rider, being 25 or under, on the general classification.

Additional classifications: Although there are no jerseys, there is a teams classification, a dedicated classification for the intermediate sprints found on each stage, and a 'Fuga Pinarello' prize for the most kilometres spent in breakaways.

Giro d'Italia history

The Giro d’Italia, or Tour of Italy, was first established back in 1909, around six years after the Tour de France. Like its French counterpart, the Giro was born out of an attempt to boost sales of a national sports newspaper, La Gazzetta dello Sport . The first edition almost didn’t go ahead as the organisers lacked the 25,000 lire needed to hold the race.

After a few charitable donations from other Italian businesses, which included a 3,000 lire donation from La Gazzetta’s publishing rivals, Corriere della Sera , the race went ahead and 127 riders rolled out of Milan on the 13th May at 02:53am, ready to embark on an eight-stage adventure into the unknown.

The home favourite, Luigi Ganna, won three of these stages on his way to winning the overall classification - crowning himself the first ever victor of what would soon become Italy’s most prestigious bicycle race. After his landmark victory, Ganna immortalised both himself and the tortuous race he had just won with six simple words, “Mi fa tanto male il culo!” or, “My ass hurts so much!”

Like the Tour de France did in its early years, the Giro d’Italia snowballed in popularity and by the 20s it was one of the biggest sporting events in the country. One of the Giro’s legends, Alfredo Binda, dominated during this decade, taking four overall victories before a record-breaking fifth in the early 30s.

Only two riders that followed him have managed to equal his incredible achievement and score five wins in this race, Fausto Coppi in the 40s and 50s, and Eddy Merckx in the 60s and 70s.

Coppi’s name is one of the many synonymous with the Giro d’Italia, as is his arch-rival’s, Gino Bartali. The two Italians animated some of the most memorable editions of the Giro and created a rivalry that split an entire nation, much like Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor did in France during the 60s.

Several other legends of Italian cycling followed Coppi and Bartali, each one claiming Giro titles of their own. These Italian icons include: Felice Gimondi, the second-ever rider to win all three Grand Tours, Gianni Bugno, a two-time World Champion, and of course, Marco Pantani, a rider known to many as ‘Il Pirata’.

In more recent years the Giro d’Italia has diversified its pool of winners and has seen a number of other nations flourish. Canada, Colombia, Ecuador and Australia have all taken maiden overall victories in the last 11 years, courtesy of Ryder Hesjedal (Canada) in 2012, Nairo Quintana (Colombia) in 2014, Richard Carapaz (Ecuador) in 2019, and Jai Hindley (Australia) in 2022.

The Italians have remained stalwart and ever-present in this race however; since 2010 they’ve taken four overall titles, one with Ivan Basso in 2010, one with the late Michele Scarponi in 2011, and two with the evergreen Vincenzo Nibali in 2013 and 2016.

The number of Italian wins in this race gets even greater the further back through history you go. In all, the home nation has taken an incredible 69 overall titles in this race. To put that figure into perspective the closest nation to them is Belgium who sit on a lowly seven, followed by France on six.

Latest News

1 Classified two-speed hub used by Ineos Grenadiers in Giro d'Italia time trial

2 Giro d'Italia: ‘The team kept believing in me, it paid off, I’m back’ says resurgent Thymen Arensman

3 'We look sometimes like clowns' says Max Schachmann of Tadej Pogačar's Giro d'Italia superiority

4 The GC standings at the Giro d'Italia

5 'Night and day' as Geraint Thomas bounces back at Giro d'Italia

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Two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar adds the Giro d’Italia to his 2024 program

FILE - Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar, wearing the best young rider’s white jersey, celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the twentieth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 133.5 kilometers (83 miles) with start in Belfort and finish in Le Markstein Fellering, France, Saturday, July 22, 2023. Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar announced Sunday, Dec, 17, 2023 that he has added the Giro d’Italia to his program for the upcoming season. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)

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MILAN (AP) — Two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar announced Sunday that he has added the Giro d’Italia to his program for the upcoming season.

The Slovenian cyclist made the announcement together with Giro organizers, who said that Pogacar still plans to ride the Tour in 2024.

“Andiamo (Let’s go),” Pogacar said in a brief video posted on social media.

Pogacar won the Tour in 2020 and 2021 and finished runner-up to Jonas Vingegaard in the last two editions. He has never competed in the Giro.

No rider has won the Giro and Tour in the same year since Marco Pantani accomplished the double in 1998.

Next year’s Giro starts near Turin on May 4 and ends in Rome next to the Colosseum on May 26.

AP sports coverage from Europe: https://apnews.com/hub/sports-europe

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The Giro-Tour double: Cycling’s elusive feat

Only seven riders in history have won both grand tours in the same season, for a total of 12 times.

Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! >","name":"in-content-cta","type":"link"}}'>Download the app .

Could this be a history-making year?

There’s a lot of buzz in Naples that Bradley Wiggins (Sky) could make a credible run at becoming the first rider since Marco Pantani in 1998 to win the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same season.

Almost inevitably, there always seems to be hype gravitating around someone shooting for the elusive Giro-Tour double. And just about every year, someone falls flat on their face trying. Sometimes literally.

Yet the quest for the maglia rosa and the maillot jaune remains one of the elusive feats in all of cycling.

Wiggins isn’t hiding that he’s interested in the Tour, but he also knows first things come first.

“The main thing is to win the Giro,” Wiggins said this week. “That’s the first hurdle.”

And what a hurdle it is. And then there’s Tour.

It takes a lot to win one grand tour, let alone two. The stars have to align pull off the double. A rider must negotiate the hazards of three weeks of racing, avoiding crashes, bonks, and attacks from rivals, then do it all again.

Only seven riders have completed the double for a total of 12 times, with Fausto Coppi the first to achieve it in 1949.

The Italian legend did it again in 1952. Jacques Anquetil (1964), Stephen Roche (1987), and Pantani all did it once. Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain each won twice, in 1982 and 1985, and 1992-93, respectively. Eddy Merckx, the standard-bearer of any cycling statistic, is the only one to complete three doubles, in 1970, 1972, and 1974.

There are other “doubles,” such as the Tour-Vuelta a España, or the Giro-Vuelta combos. Anquetil (1963) and Hinault (1978) both achieved the Vuelta-Tour double while Alberto Contador (2008), Merckx (1973) and Giovanni Battaglin (1981) pulled off the Vuelta-Giro double. That latter two are even more remarkable considering the Vuelta used to be run in April until 1995, meaning they raced and won two grand tours nearly back-to-back, non-stop.

The Giro-Tour combo, however, holds the most prestige and allure.

As the two hardest and most demanding grand tours, winning them in succession is the high-water mark of cycling achievement.

Racing two grand tours in one season certainly isn’t anything new. Sprinters, domestiques, and stage-hunters regularly put in the miles to complete two, and sometimes three, grand tours in one campaign. Finishing is something else.

In fact, only 32 riders in more than a century of grand tours have managed to finish all three in one season. Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) rode and finished all three last year, and he’s back in Naples with the intention of doing it again.

For most GC contenders, hitting their peak to challenge for just one grand tour a season is challenge enough. Few even seriously consider taking on two.

The center of gravity remains the Tour. The French grand tour is the central focus of most top GC contenders, and that’s been true for decades. The internationalization of cycling has brought more equity among three grand tours, but the Giro remains very much an Italian race, and the same goes for the Vuelta being considered a Spanish race.

The allure of making history has drawn out the big names.

Merckx, for example, only raced one Vuelta, in his prime in 1973, which he promptly won in a classic showdown against Luis Ocaña in order to join Felice Gimondi and Anquetil (and later Hinault and Contador) as the only riders who’ve won all three grand tours. He later won the Giro, in part to make his new sponsor, Moltini, happy, and skipped the Tour that year, perhaps passing on the only realistic chance of one rider to win all three grand tours in one year.

At its heart, the Giro remains very much an Italian affair. In fact, the first non-Italian winner didn’t come until Hugo Koblet of Switzerland in 1950. Before then, the Italians rarely raced in France, and the French rarely crossed the Alps to race the Giro.

That started to change in dramatically in the 1960s and 1970s, with Merckx hitting his zenith to win seemingly at will during his reign.

Roche’s magical 1987 campaign, during which he also won the world title to complete the “triple crown,” was a once-in-a-lifetime season for the oft-injured Irishman. He never won another grand tour.

The Italians almost always won the Giro, but they had a hell of a time in the Tour. In 1965, Gimondi became the last Italian to win the Tour all the way until Pantani, who is the last.

Italians such as Gianni Bugno, Giuseppe Saronni, and Franco Moser would raise Italian hopes, only to fail in France.

In 1989, a healthy Laurent Fignon blew through the Giro and looked to have the Tour sewn up, until the final-day time trial duel with Greg LeMond.

LeMond ushered in a new era when the Tour became paramount. Though he raced seven Giros, which included a third-place result in 1985, the closest he came to the double was with fourth in 1986 before his first of three maillot jaunes in the now-famous showdown with Hinault in that year’s Tour.

Indurain won back-to-back Giros in 1992-93 as part of his five-year Tour domination in the go-go 1990s, but in 1994 he collapsed against Evgeni Berzin, who was riding by the notorious Gewiss team, fueled by the now-banned Dr. Michele Ferrari.

Tony Rominger won the 1995 Giro, but ran into a superior Indurain at that year’s Tour, the last for giant Spaniard.

The Lance Armstrong era was marked by the Texan’s domination of the Tour and the obliteration of anyone who came out of the Giro with pretensions of targeting yellow. Fueled by Dr. Ferrari, Armstrong beat Giro winners such as Gilberto Simoni and Paolo Savoldelli, only to see his seven Tour wins taken away for doping.

Over the past few years, Contador seemed to be the lone rider capable of achieving the double, but he never seemed too interested in the challenge. He won the 2008 Giro after his then-Astana team was kept out of the Tour. In 2011, he roared through the Giro, but fell flat in the Tour to finish fifth. Both of those results were erased as part of his two-year ban dating back to his 2010 positive test for clenbuterol.

The idea of performing at a high level across two grand tours seems more feasible as the sport has slowly cleaned up its act.

Last year, Giro winner Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) entered the Tour with what he claimed were “better sensations” than he felt in Italy. No one will ever know what could have happened because he crashed out in the first week.

This year’s mountainous Tour favors Hesjedal’s chance in July much more than last year.

Like Wiggins said, first comes the Giro. That’s anything but assured.

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win\"}}\u0027>\n \u2018i tried, i gave everything:\u2019 poga\u010dar mulling over missed opportunity for giro d\u2019italia stage win\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"review: testing the colnago g4-x at the traka 360","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/gravel\/gravel-gear\/colnago-g4-x-review\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/gravel\/gravel-gear\/colnago-g4-x-review\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"review: testing the colnago g4-x at the traka 360\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/gravel\/gravel-gear\/colnago-g4-x-review\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"review: testing the colnago g4-x at the traka 360\"}}\u0027>\n review: testing the colnago g4-x at the traka 360\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "},{"title":"results: pete stetina and karolina migo\u0144 win the 2024 traka 360 gravel race","url":"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/gravel\/gravel-racing\/results-pete-stetina-and-karolina-migon-win-the-2024-traka-360-gravel-race\/","markup":" \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/gravel\/gravel-racing\/results-pete-stetina-and-karolina-migon-win-the-2024-traka-360-gravel-race\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"results: pete stetina and karolina migo\u0144 win the 2024 traka 360 gravel race\"}}\u0027>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n >\", \"path\": \"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/gravel\/gravel-racing\/results-pete-stetina-and-karolina-migon-win-the-2024-traka-360-gravel-race\/\", \"listing_type\": \"recirc\", \"location\": \"list\", \"title\": \"results: pete stetina and karolina migo\u0144 win the 2024 traka 360 gravel race\"}}\u0027>\n results: pete stetina and karolina migo\u0144 win the 2024 traka 360 gravel race\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n "}]' > >", "name": "footer-menu", "type": "link"}}'>advertise >", "name": "footer-menu", "type": "link"}}'>privacy policy >", "name": "footer-menu", "type": "link"}}'>contact >", "name": "footer-menu", "type": "link"}}'>careers >", "name": "footer-menu", "type": "link"}}'>terms of use >", "name": "footer-menu", "type": "link"}}'>site map >", "name": "footer-menu", "type": "link"}}'>my newsletters manage cookie preferences privacy request healthy living.

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Two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar adds the Giro d’Italia to his 2024 program

The Associated Press

December 17, 2023, 11:53 AM

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MILAN (AP) — Two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar announced Sunday that he has added the Giro d’Italia to his program for the upcoming season.

The Slovenian cyclist made the announcement together with Giro organizers, who said that Pogacar still plans to ride the Tour in 2024.

“Andiamo (Let’s go),” Pogacar said in a brief video posted on social media.

Pogacar won the Tour in 2020 and 2021 and finished runner-up to Jonas Vingegaard in the last two editions. He has never competed in the Giro.

No rider has won the Giro and Tour in the same year since Marco Pantani accomplished the double in 1998.

Next year’s Giro starts near Turin on May 4 and ends in Rome next to the Colosseum on May 26.

AP sports coverage from Europe: https://apnews.com/hub/sports-europe

Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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Giro 2024: le classement de la 8e étape du Tour d'Italie remportée par Pogacar

Les jours se suivent et se ressemblent sur le Giro. Vainqueur vendredi devant Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) sur le contre-la-montre entre Foligno et Pérouse, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) a confirmé sa suprématie en allant s'imposer au sprint ce samedi au sommet du Prati di Tivo lors de la 8e étape. Il s'agit du troisième succès du Slovène depuis le départ de ce Tour d'Italie.

Son équipe a contrôlé toute la journée, ne laissant jamais trop de marge à l'échappée du jour, dans laquelle figurait notamment les Français Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) et Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale). Ce dernier a été repris par le groupe des favoris à 4,2 kilomètres de l'arrivée. Ensuite, Rafal Majka, dernier coéquipier de Pogacar dans ce groupe, a fait le travail pour mettre sur orbite son leader à 300 mètres de la ligne. S'il n'a pas repris de temps, ou très peu, sur ses rivaux, nul doute que "Pogi" a encore plus marqué de son empreinte cette 107e édition.

Le classement de la 8e étape

1- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 2- Daniel Felipe Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe) 3- Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) 4- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) à 2" 5- Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) à 2" 6- Einer Rubio (Movistar) à 2" 7- Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma Lease a bike) à 2" 8- Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) à 11" 9- Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) à 13" 10- Alex Baudin (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) à 21"

Les maillots distinctifs

Maillot rose : Tadej Pogacar (SLV) (UAE Team Emirates) Maillot cyclamen : Jonathan Milan (ITA) (Lidl-Trek) Maillot bleu : Tadej Pogacar (SLV) (UAE Team Emirates) Maillot blanc : Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma Lease a bike)

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Sifflets, tifo, communion, but, défaite: récit de la drôle de dernière de Kylian Mbappé avec le PSG au Parc des Princes

Le psg s'offre une fête grandiose pour le titre de champion de france sans hommage à mbappé, le récit en détails, monaco assuré de la 2e place, lille sur le podium, lens, l’ol et l’om à la lutte… la course à l’europe se précise, clermont relégué en ligue 2, un scénario renversant offre un match à trois pour le barrage, nba: le cours magistral de wembanyama sur la matière noire, en pleine conf de presse.

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How to Watch All the Biggest Pro Cycling Races of 2024

Here’s a look at the pro road races we can’t wait to watch in 2024—plus where to stream all the action.

Milan-San Remo—March 16

Tour of flanders—march 31, paris-roubaix—april 6 and 7, itzulia basque country—april 1 to 6, la vuelta femenina—april 29 to may 5, giro d’italia—may 4 to 26, giro d’italia donne—july 7 to 14, tour de france—june 29 to july 21, olympic road races—august 3 and 4, tour de france femmes—august 12 to 18, vuelta a españa—august 17 to september 8, world road race championships—september 28 and 29.

Believe it or not, the 2024 pro road season is already underway, with the women’s and men’s Tour Down Under kicking things off in Australia this month. As the first races on the men’s and women’s WorldTour calendars, these are important events–and the riders taking part are certainly doing their best to get the season off to an exciting start.

Here are thirteen that we’ve already got marked in our calendars–and what streaming services you’ll need to enjoy them from home.

Strade Bianche—March 2

Taking place on the white gravel roads of Tuscany, Strade Bianche is easily one of the hardest and most beautiful events of the year–and a race in which the strongest rider always wins. So it makes sense that the event’s list of winners reads like a “Who’s Who” of the sport’s best racers.

For example, Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) won the men’s race in 2022 with a solo attack 50 kilometers from the finish line in Siena, an incredibly gutsy move that only a rider like Pogačar could attempt (and pull off).

Last year, Great Britain’s Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers) added his name to the event’s impressive roll of honor with a daring ride of his own after catching the breakaway with about 40km to go, attacking on his own with about 20km to go, and then using his cyclocross and mountain bike skills (gravel descents can be treacherous) to stay away and win the race by himself. And while Pidcock won’t be back to defend his title this year, Pogačar will be taking the start (it’s his first race of the season), making the Slovenian the top favorite.

The women’s race always produces fireworks of its own. Last year, Kopecky (who won the race in 2022) and her teammate, the Netherlands’ Demi Vollering, hit the finish line (in Siena’s historic Piazza del Campo) together after working to catch and overtake the lone leader, American Kristen Faulkner (Team Jayco-AlUla).

But instead of crossing the line hand-in-hand, Vollering out-sprinted Kopecky with a well-timed bike throw to take the win. This was an uncomfortable outcome (at first), as it was unclear as to whether or not the riders were “supposed” to be sprinting against one another with such intensity. (Frankly, we loved it.)

This year, Kopecky and Vollering will look to make it four in a row for SD Worx (the Netherlands’ Chantal van den Broek-Blaak won the race for the team in 2021). We’ll be rooting for Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM Racing), a four-time podium finisher who’s still searching for the top step.

While they haven’t released their calendar yet, we’re assuming (and hoping) that this race–and other major Italian events–will be included with the new B/R Sports add-on package that’s available to Max subscribers (essentially replacing GCN+). So stay tuned–we’ll announce more details when we have them.

How to Watch Strade Bianche: Max with B/R Sports add-on

At almost 300km, Milan-San Remo is the longest one-day race on the calendar. And thanks to the fact that the outcome is almost always decided in the final 10km, the riders say it’s the easiest of cycling’s five Monuments to finish, but the hardest to win.

We love Milan-San Remo’s slow build to the finish as the riders head south from Milan toward the coast, then wind their way along the sea toward the cluster of climbs that host the Monument’s traditional finale. The day’s final and most famous ascent is the Poggio, a short, punchy ascent just a few kilometers from the finish line with a descent that often creates more gaps than the climb itself.

Case in point: Last year Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) attacked over the top of the climb and used the descent to lengthen his lead over an elite group of chasers. The Dutchman held on to take his first win in the season’s opening Monument.

And while there’s no women’s Milan-San Remo, the Trofeo Alfredo Binda, a major stop on the women’s WorldTour and a pillar of the former women’s World Cup series, takes place the next day–and (we assume) will be streamed live via Max.

Last year, the Netherland’s Shirin van Anrooij (Trek-Segafredo) brought Trek’s winning streak to three, escaping to win the race alone, 23 seconds ahead of her teammate–and the defending champion–Elisa Balsamo. One of the brightest young riders in the sport, the win announced van Anrooij as a future Classics superstar. And the 21-year-old promptly lived up to the hype, scoring top-10 finishes in Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Tour of Flanders, the Brabantse Pijl, and the Amstel Gold Race.

How to Watch Milan-San Remo: Max

Many riders consider the Tour of Flanders (known locally as the “Ronde van Vlaanderen”) to be the hardest one-day race on the calendar. The women’s and men’s events cover over 150km and 250km of the toughest terrain in the Flemish region of Belgium including tight, technical roads, cobblestones, and short, steep climbs called “bergs.” The course is so challenging that it can take years for riders to master the nuances of the race enough to contend to win it.

Last year’s men’s race went to Pogačar, who won the race alone after dropping everyone on the third and final ascent of the Oude Kwaremont. Van der Poel finished second, and has now finished first or second in each of the last four editions.

Pogačar won’t be back to defend his title this year, which means van der Poel has a shot to tie the record for the most wins in race history. But we’ll be rooting for Belgium’s Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), who’s completely overhauled his early-season program (he’s racing less and spending more time at high-altitude training camps) so as to be at his absolute best for his nation’s most important event.

The women’s event should once again be SD Worx’s race to lose: the Dutch team has won three of the last four editions, with Kopecky taking back-to-back victories in 2022 and 2023. It’s always a team effort though: last year Vollering joined Kopecky on the podium in second and in 2022 van den Broek-Blaak took third. Lidl-Trek, with van Anroij and Italy’s Eliza Longo Borghini (who finished third last year and won the race on 2015), should be the Dutch squad’s biggest challengers.

When it comes to streaming this and many of the Flemish Classics, you’ll need a $150 annual subscription to FloBikes, the only legal way to stream them in the USA. If you’re a diehard fan who doesn’t want to deal with pesky VPNs, it’s the most reliable method, but it comes at a significant cost and doesn’t offer much in terms of other events that can’t be streamed through other services.

How to Watch Tour of Flanders: FloBikes

The “Hell of the North.” The “Queen of the Classics.” Whatever you call it, the men’s and women’s editions of Paris-Roubaix are probably our favorite one-day races on the calendar. Famous for covering 30km and 55km of some of Northern France’s worst cobbled farm roads, they’re loaded with drama and always produce worthy champions.

The weekend begins with Saturday’s fourth edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes (145km), which–if it sticks to last year’s course–should start in Denain and include the final 17 or so sectors of cobbles (called “pavé”) from Sunday’s men’s race—all the way to the finish line in the Roubaix velodrome, where Canada’s Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale) shocked the world by outsprinting her breakaway companions to take a surprise win in last year’s edition. Surprisingly, this is the only spring Classic that SD Worx hasn’t won yet, so they’ll be super-aggressive after missing out in the first three editions.

In last year’s men’s race, van der Poel followed up his win in Milan-Sanremo and his second-place finish in the Tour of Flanders with a victory in Paris-Roubaix, a race seemingly made for the 5-time world cyclocross champion. The Dutchman followed an attack by van Aert on one of the race’s final cobbled sectors (a famous stretch called the Carrefour de l’Arbe) and then surged ahead on his own after the Belgian flatted.

Expect the two of them to renew their rivalry this year, with van Aert doing everything he can to end his spring with a victory in the French Monument (especially if he comes up short at Flanders the week before).

How to Watch Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Roubaix Femmes: Peacock

Once known as the Tour of the Basque Country, the 6-day Itzulia Basque Country is one of the hardest stage races on the calendar. Raced through the steep, punchy hills in the Basque region of northern Spain, each road stage (one stage is usually an individual time trial) is raced like a mini-Classic. And the overall winner is usually a grand tour contender who’s using the event to build form for the Giro d’Italia or the Tour de France.

The racing here is always exciting, but this year’s edition offers an even better reason to watch: it is expected to be the first race of the season in which former Jumbo-Visma teammates Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Primož Roglič (who’s now riding for BORA-hansgrohe after a respectful divorce from the Dutch super team) will go head-to-head against one another as rivals.

Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick-Step) is likely to be racing as well, meaning three of the four contenders for this year’s Tour de France will be in action together–the only time that’s expected to happen before the Tour de France itself.

How to Watch Itzulia Basque Country: FloBikes

For the past 8 years, the organizers of the men’s Vuelta a España have organized a women’s event. Originally starting as a one-day race run alongside the last stage of the men’s grand tour, the event grew to consist of four days of racing. But that’s hardly a grand tour, isn’t it?

Enter last year’s new and improved La Vuelta Feminina which in addition to being expanded to seven stages, moved from September to its own spot on the calendar–away from the men’s event that often overshadowed it.

Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar) won last year’s new and improved edition, but somewhat controversially. On Stage 6, the Dutch star and her team attacked the front of the race just as Vollering, who had entered the day as the overall leader, stopped to take a “nature break” off the back of the peloton. Thanks to strong crosswinds that split the race apart, Vollering and her SD Worx teammates were unable to bring back Van Vleuten, so Vollering’s chances to win the race went up the road as well.

This year’s course has yet to be unveiled, but one thing is certain: Van Vleuten–who became the first woman in history to win all three of the sport’s grand tours–has since retired, making Vollering the top favorite to take the title for herself this year.

How to Watch La Vuelta Feminina: Peacock

While the Tour de France gets all the prestige, riders generally consider the Giro d’Italia to be much, much harder.

This year’s race begins in the Piedmont region and–aside from a brief trip into Switzerland–stays within Italy for each of its 21 stages. Always characterized by its mountains, the 2024 Giro d’Italia boasts five high mountain stages and four summit finishes, including a trip over the infamous Stelvio, the tallest climb in this year’s race.

The Giro will also feature two individual time trials, which is perhaps why Tadej Pogačar has made the Italian grand tour one of his goals. This will be the Slovenian’s first time competing in the Italian grand tour, and he’s easily the top favorite.

This year will also mark the first Giro appearance for Wout van Aert, who says he’s not targeting the General Classification. But given the fact that he’s not racing the Tour de France this summer, we can’t help but wonder if he’ll shoot for a top-10 or top-5 finish overall.

How to Watch the Giro d’Italia: Max

Before the arrival of the Tour de France Femmes a few years ago, the Giro d’Italia Donne was the most prestigious women’s stage race on the calendar. But it was plagued by sketchy organization, and in some years seemed to be teetering on the edge of collapse.

But now the event is organized by the same group that organizes the men’s Giro which means better support, more stability and–hopefully–improved TV coverage.

The race begins with a short time trial in Brescia, then works its way south, with two flat stages for sprinters, three punchy stages for breakaway and classics riders, and two mountain stages on the final weekend, including a Stage 6 summit finish on the Blockhaus, one of the Giro’s most famous climbs.

Van Vleuten won last year’s edition by almost four minutes, taking her fourth victory in the Italian grand tour. This year–with the Tour de France Femmes taking place a few weeks later than it usually does–we wonder if Demi Vollering will make the race a target, perhaps in an attempt to win all three women’s grand tours in one season.

How to Watch Giro d’Italia Donne: Max

The 2024 Tour de France should be one of the most exciting editions in decades, with an Italian start, a route filled with mountains, and a non-traditional finish in Nice instead of Paris.

The race begins in Florence with the first of three Italian stages and is then followed by an early trip through the Alps (Stage 4) that should sort the General Classification just a couple of days into the Tour’s first week. This will also be the first men’s Tour to feature a gravel stage, with Stage 9 covering 32km of gravel roads through the Champagne vineyards around Troyes before the Tour’s first Rest Day.

The second week brings the race through the rugged Massif Central and into the Pyrenees, where the week ends with back-to-back summit finishes including the Tour’s return to Plateau de Beille, one of the toughest ascents in the Pyrenees.

The Tour’s final week takes a southerly route back to the Alps and a final showdown in and around Nice that concludes with an individual time trial–35 years after American Greg Lemond overtook France’s Laurent Fignon to win the 1989 Tour in a time trial on the Tour’s final stage. This is a big change: the Tour usually ends in Paris, but with the Olympics set to begin in the City of Lights on July 26th, the Tour needs to finish elsewhere so as to avoid any logistical conflicts.

Vingegaard, the two-time defending champion, will be back to try and score a hat trick, but he’ll face the toughest list of challengers he’s ever seen including Pogačar, who’s hoping to win the Giro-Tour double; Evenepoel, who’s riding his first Tour de France; and Roglič, his former teammate and now newest rival. With a difficult course and a star-studded startlist, this could be a Tour for the ages.

How to Watch the Tour de France: Peacock

Taking place about two weeks after the conclusion of the Tour de France–and one before the start of the Tour de France Femmes–gold medals will be awarded in the men’s and women’s road races at the Olympics in Paris.

Covering 278km and 158km, respectively, both the men’s and women’s races are expected to favor the sport’s Classics stars, with lots of short, punchy climbs and a finishing circuit through downtown Paris that takes the riders up the cobbled Côté de la Butte Montmartre three times. So it comes as no surprise that riders like Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogačar, Wout van Aert, Lotte Kopecky, and Demi Vollering have the Olympics written in nice big capital letters on their calendars.

If you watched last year’s world championships in Glasgow last August, you’ve seen what a challenging urban circuit can do to a peloton, and with smaller teams (countries can start 1-4 riders depending on their nation’s UCI ranking), fewer riders overall (just 90 in each event), and no race radios (so riders will get less information and direction from their team cars), we’re expecting aggressive, dramatic outcomes.

How to Watch the Olympics: NBC/Peacock

The first two editions of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift started on the last day of the men’s Tour de France. But with the Olympics coming closely on the heels of the men’s Tour, this year’s third edition of the incredibly popular Tour de France Femmes was pushed back a few weeks–which is great because it means the race doesn’t have to share the spotlight with the world’s largest sporting event.

In addition to changing its place on the calendar, more than half of this year’s Tour de France Femmes will take place outside of France with three stages taking place in and around Rotterdam (including two stages in one day on Tuesday, August 13), a transitional stage that takes the race from Valkenburg to Liège on Stage 5, and a stage starting in Bastogne (Stage 5) before finally bringing the riders across the border and into France.

But just like the first two editions, it’s the final weekend that packs the biggest punch, with two days in the Alps with back-to-back summit finishes including a finish atop Alpe d’Huez–arguably the most famous climb in professional cycling–on the last day of the Tour.

Last year, Vollering and SD Worx dominated the Tour. The team won four of the Tour’s eight stages, held the yellow jersey from start to finish, put two riders on the final podium, took the green jersey for winning the Points Classification, and won the Tour’s Teams Classification. Defending Vollering’s title is one of the team’s main goals 2024.

How to Watch the Tour de France Femmes: Peacock

As the final grand tour of the season, the Vuelta a España is traditionally one of the last chances for riders hoping to end the year on high note, earn a contract for the following season, or get themselves in shape for the world championships in late-September. So with lots of mountains and a start list filled with motivated riders, the Vuelta always delivers some of the year’s most exciting racing.

This year’s race begins in Portugal, with two time trials, eight mountain stages, and several jagged, hilly stages (some of which have short uphill finishes of their own) to test the riders. Every year the organizers create a course that seems to say: “If you’re not a climber, stay home.”

At this point in the year it’s tough to predict who will add the Spanish grand tour to their program as lots of things can change between now and August. But we’re hoping that last year’s surprise-but-not-a-surprise winner, American Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike), will get a chance to come back and defend his title from last year.

How to Watch the Vuelta a España: Peacock

After taking place in Glasgow in early-August last year (as part of the UCI’s “mega world championships”), this year’s World Road Race Championships are heading to Zurich and moving back to their usual spot on the calendar in late-September, with our favorite events–the Elite Road Races–taking place on the final weekend of the month.

On Saturday, the Elite Women will complete a 154km road race that begins in Ulster and ends with four laps of a tough, 27km finishing circuit in and around Zurich. The next day, the Elite Men will cover a 274km course that starts in Winterthur and concludes with seven laps of the Zurich finishing circuit.

This is another race for Classics riders, with a finishing circuit that should favor the riders we saw at the front of last year’s World Championship road races. In the women’s race, Kopecky will be a favorite to defend her title, but she’ll face stiff competition from the Dutch, most likely led by her SD Worx teammate Vollering, who–despite being one of the sport’s best racers–has never won a rainbow jersey. We love how races like the Olympics and Worlds pit riders who spend much of the season as teammates against one another.

The men’s race should play out in a similar way–albeit with fewer teammates racing against teammates. The defending champion–van der Poel–should again be the top favorite, with the Belgians–led by van Aert and Evenepoel–his biggest rivals.

How to Watch the World Championships: FloBikes

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Giro d'Italia - Road race Men - Stage 1

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Current stage, latest news, kooij edges electric stage 9 finish after incredible pogacar leadout.

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How to watch Stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia as Pogacar looks to extend lead

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Mark Cavendish continues Tour de France build-up in Hungary as Lutsenko leads Astana at Giro d'Italia

Manxman to ride Tour de Hongrie alongside Peter Sagan as three-time World Champion returns to road racing

Astana Qazaqstan have split up their leaders Alexey Lutsenko and Mark Cavendish for the upcoming races in May, with the Kazakh climber taking on the Giro d’Italia as the Manxman gears up for his final Tour de France in Hungary.

Cavendish will start the Tour de Hongrie instead of the Giro as he continues to build up to the Tour where he will take aim at a record 35th stage victory which would place him alone at the top of the win list above Eddy Merckx.

The five-day Tour de Hongrie usually provides multiple sprint opportunities, ideal for the Manxman to find his best form after struggling with illness and not scoring a win since the Tour of Colombia in February.

The hilly profile of many of the stages at last week's Tour of Turkey meant Cavendish was unable to contest the sprints. The closest he came to success was on stage 7 when a mechanical problem meant Cavendish wasn't able to finish off the work of the Astana Qazaqstan lead-out. 

‘Sprinting is not an addiction to me’ – Mark Cavendish prepares to return at Tour of Turkey Alexey Lutsenko wins Giro d'Abruzzo as Sivakov triumphs on final stage Peter Sagan to undergo second heart surgery

Lutsenko will ride only his second Giro and lead an Astana squad also featuring Italian national champion Simone Velasco, former Giro stage winner Lorenzo Fortunato and Max Kanter after the German took his first pro win at the Tour of Turkey.

The Kazakh national champion pulled out of his last race at the Tour de Romandie due to illness after the first stage but has looked strong in 2024 with the overall win and a stage victory at the Giro d’Abruzzo alongside a top 10 at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

If Lutsenko takes a stage win, he will complete the set of Grand Tour victories after scoring victories at the Tour in 2020 and Vuelta in 2017.

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Also facing off with Cavendish in Hungary will be top sprinters Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla), Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor), Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers).

Perhaps the most interesting name on the start list is Peter Sagan , who will be making his return to road racing after retiring from the discipline at the end of 2023. The three-time World Champion will race for Continental team Pierre Baguette Cycling, where his brother Juraj Sagan is a sports director.

Sagan underwent two heart surgeries and had a cardiac recording device implanted in 2024 after suffering a tachycardic episode while racing in Spain for the Specialized Factory Racing mountain bike team. His ambition for 2024 is to qualify for the MTB cross-country event at the Paris Olympics.

The Slovakian icon was one of Cavendish’s key rivals throughout his career with the paid often facing off at the Tour de France alongside the likes of Andre Greipel and Marcel Kittel.

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James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.

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