THE ROUTE

1 SATURDAY 3 OCTOBER MONREALE > PALERMO 15.1KM | ITT

It has been several years since the Giro started with a short individual time trial – the last time was 2012, when the Danish Grande Partenza saw riders tackle an 8.8km prologue around the city of Herning. This year’s test between Monreale and Palermo in Sicily isn’t quite the way the organisers had envisaged it of course – the start has been hastily relocated from Hungary, where this TT would have paraded up and down the banks of the Danube in Budapest on the way to an uphill finish. With Monreale perched on the slopes of Monte Caputo, the revised stage is likely to be a faster affair as riders plunge downwards into Palermo’s coastal heart.

It ought still to act as a GC scene setter, albeit weighted in favour of power riders with good technical skills. Could Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) reprise his victory at the rain-slick Düsseldorf prologue in the 2017 Tour de France?

2 SUNDAY 4 OCTOBER ALCAMO > AGRIGENTO 149KM | HILLY

You can’t escape the hills on Sicily for long and the riders are thrown straight into the fray with this lumpy outing to Agrigento on the island’s south-western coast. Much of the climbing comes in the first half as the race crosses the centre of the island, flattening out along the coastal road ready for a hill-top finish in Agrigento. Five uphill kilometres await the riders, averaging five per cent with ramps of up to nine per cent. The town last featured in the Giro in 2018 when it was the start town in what was a pretty good impression of this stage in reverse, won by Enrico Battaglin (LottoNL-Jumbo).

Although they’ll want to be on their guard, today’s stage is unlikely to bring the GC contingent out to play – particularly in view of tomorrow’s summit finish on Mount Etna. Instead look out for a hard-finishing puncheur to take the spoils.

3 MONDAY 5 OCTOBER ENNA > ETNA 150KM | MOUNTAINS

The fact that Mount Etna is