Giro d'Italia predictions with 7/4 and 11/4 tips

The Giro d’Italia begins on Saturday and we’ve called on Racing Post cycling expert Matthew Ireland for his tips ahead of the big event.

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Roglic and Evenepoel the key Giro d’Italia contenders

Cycling fans have been treated to some enthralling battles in this spring’s one-day Classics and they will be tickled pink over the next few weeks as all eyes turn to Italy for this year’s first Grand Tour, the Giro d’Italia.

While the Tour de France can be an all-encompassing juggernaut, the Giro is a race for the purists; where punishing terrain meets stunning surroundings in equal measure and it usually makes for exciting racing.

There is no start on foreign shores this time around with the Abruzzo region, famed for its wine production, hosting the opening exchanges, and there is every chance we will witness another vintage renewal.

The contenders for the leader’s pink jersey will have an early opportunity to gain some time on their rivals on stage one, which is a 19.6 kilometres individual time trial along the Adriatic coast.

Indeed, time-trialling is likely to prove as important as performances in the mountains over the next three weeks with almost 70km of racing against the clock.

That goes some way to explaining why bookmakers believe the fight for pink will be a two-way duel between Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic.

World champion Evenepoel is odds-on to win a second Grand Tour after an imperious defence of his Liege-Bastogne-Liege title two weeks ago, with Roglic, who Evenepoel succeeded as Vuelta a Espana champion last September, around 2-1.

Both have unfinished business with the Giro. Evenepoel did not finish the race on his Grand Tour debut in 2021, while Roglic dominated much of the 2019 edition only to fall away in the final week.

There is so little to choose between the pair that it may come down to squad strength when the race hits the mountains for one of the toughest final weeks in a number of years.

In that regard, Roglic certainly has the edge as his Jumbo-Visma team is arguably the most powerful in the peloton at present.

The Slovene has had some terrible luck trying to crack the Tour de France in recent years but his Grand Tour record when avoiding misfortune is by far the best of the protagonists.

Roglic and Evenepoel have already gone head to head at the week-long Tour of Catalunya, where Roglic emerged victorious, and at the prices it could pay to side with the three-time Vuelta champion again coming out on top.

Ineos Grenadiers go into the race with a two-pronged attack as 2018 Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas and 2020 Giro champion Tao Geoghegan Hart attempt to take it to the big two.

Both are legitimate podium contenders but so too is Team UAE Emirates’ Joao Almeida, who has already put in a number of strong Giro performances during his career.

The Portuguese has finished fourth and sixth in two completed Giros and was similarly well placed last year before having to abandon the race.

He has a strong UAE squad at his disposal but will have to make his move in the mountains given his time-trial ability is not as strong as Evenepoel or Roglic.

That tempers enthusiasm for putting him up as an each-way selection for the pink jersey but he could be in the shake-up for a podium spot and finished third to the two favourites in Catalunya.

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