The first Grand Tour of the season is finally here! We take a deep dive into the 109th edition of the Giro d’Italia, breaking down all 21 stages from the historic start in Bulgaria to the brutal mountain finishes at Blockhaus and Passo Giau. Plus, we analyze the top contenders for the Maglia Rosa, including Jonas Vingegaard’s quest for the double, and preview the world-class sprinting field.
Chapters: ⏱️
00:00 – Intro & 2025 Recap
01:22 – The Route & Key Stats
02:00 – Stages 1-3: Bulgaria Grande Partenza
04:50 – Stages 4-9: Heading Into Italy
08:00 – Stage 10: The Blockhaus Test
11:08 – Stages 11,12,13
13:23 – Stages 14-20: High Mountains and a Finish in Rome
22:09 – The GC Favorites: Vingegaard vs. The Rest
31:30 – The Sprinters & Points Jersey Battle
36:17 – GCN Predictions: Who Wins?
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With Jonas Vingegaard heading to Italy as the clear favourite, who do you think is most likely to cause an upset? Give us your podium predictions and top sprinter picks in the comments! 👇
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📸 Photos – © Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images & © Sirotti Images
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50 Comments
With Jonas Vingegaard heading to Italy as the clear favourite, who do you think is most likely to cause an upset? Give us your podium predictions and top sprinter picks in the comments! 👇
Why isn’t del Toro racing it this year?
I would love the Giro art but after $40 in shipping to the US, that probably won’t happen 😅 I was dying to buy the all pink camelbak GCN water bottle for last year’s Giro, but could not justify the price after shipping! If any presenter comes to the US, don’t be afraid to bring some Giro merch with you 👀
How do they race up some those hills/mountains? I’d struggle just to ride up them!
I wouldnt rule out Mathys Rondel for a surprise Top 5-10 result, he impressed at the Tour of the alps recently, more than his team mate Storer
Thank you! The stage to Milan is ridiculous. A completely flat stage on a sunday. Well, money talks I guess.
And on the bright side, I can go out and ride myself. Don't even care about the stage, I'll see it afterwards.
Hands down, the Trofeo Senza Fine is the best looking trophy in all sports.
At 69 years old it will be the first year I pay attention to the Giro. Very strange, since I used to follow boththe Tour and the Vuelta back in the day, but never the Giro….Not sure why, really.
As an Aussie, have to go with Jay Vine or Ben O'Connor!
I think this should be a fun race to watch. No, the top spot on the podium will likely never be in doubt, but as a Vingegaard fan I'm excited to watch just how strong he is. I like to see excellence. And frankly the race behind him should be quite exciting; I give Pellizzari an advantage over the rest, but even then I think the race for 2nd could be good, and behind that it feels very open. I think there's at least 3 guys (maybe more?) who'll fight for that last spot on the podium, and the rest of the top 10 should be an excellent battle with lots of potential contenders. Also the large number of breakaway stages should keep things quite entertaining. Should be a race molto benne!
Great preview here. Thank you for breaking down this year's race. It is going to be so much fun!
Were there any riders that did not get mentioned????
Points jersey 100% Milan? I would like to take a bet against that…
I do not think that flat stages are boring.They are fascinating.❤
I would suggest showing the map of the whole stages where the discribed stage is located first and then the the daily stage map.
Gives a better idea where the daily stage is located.❤
Let's go JONAS!!!
Love the grand tours.
Tao didnt win 2021 did he? Bernal wasnt it?
GC Podium:
1. Jonas Vingegard
2. Isaac Del Toro/Gulio Pellizary/
3. Egan Bernal/M. Skelmose/Adam Yates/Leny Martines
I cannot imagine how godly Si would look like with Mulet hairstyle
Is there any chance you could do a segment on how the riders spend their days off. I'm sure they include rest, recovery, and food intake but it would be interesting to have more details.
What's wrong with the audio, sounds like it was recorded through a pillow?
bottom line we have Vingegård against… nothing.
40k itt,Vine could put 2 minutes into all but 2 gc guys
Isaac del mothafukin TORO! 😂
Nesebar is pronounced NesEber, accent on E (not your E, pronounced perversely as i: but NORMAL E, like E in Led), and -ber pronounced as in OctOber.
The capital of Bulgaria is pronounced sOfia, accent on O.
look i hope JV wins so he gets the treble b4 Pog cause Pog is a sore loser! but it aint a stacked field is it with the unfortunate withdrawals. I hope an aussie gets on the podium.
Roche/Visetini 87.
I guess there is no need to watch it then.
My predictions.. A podium contender will crash out on stage 1 ( Amazing that SafeR AKA the UCI don’t mandate no sprint stage until WK2 -but that would upset the organisers) P2. If Jonas gets through stage 1 ( see prediction 1 ) it will be a procession P3 A lot of riders will be outside the time cut on the Blockhaus stage unless they ‘agree’ to tootle along to the base and then race from there. P4 We’ll see way more of even the dullest stage than the UCI/ ASO in their contempt for women’s racing deign to give us of pretty much any women’s race. PS I don’t want to hear that it’s not up to the UCI. The UCI could mandate a 60 / 70/80 minute minimum ..and could certainly mandate a live stream for even longer.
Dan should be sent to ride the ‘soft’ last week.
Go Rockets!
All the best wont ride the Giro this year. ANd Jonas is frankly extremely boring and not among the best anymore. I think i might even skip big part of the Giro, its simply to many stars not riding it this year like literally all, extraordinary.
On paper looks like a very unexciting Giro
Without serious opponents, if Vingegaard does not win, it would be a disaster for him.
Excited to see Bulgaria featured. Such an obscure country. And the 2nd and 3rd stages there have an interesting profile. No DelToro is a bit of a bummer though. His racing is, shall one say, a bit 'unpredictable', which makes watching him quite entertaining.
Most likely: Jonas 1, Yates 2, pellizari 3.
Hopefully: 1. Yates, 2. Pellizari 3. Jonas.
One can dream.
Visma better do what they can to get Sepp a stage win so he can have stage wins in all three of the GTs
Nice that. we will finally have acess to jonas training rides.
GC:
1. Vingegaard
2. Pellizzari
3. Bernal
Points: Milan
Mountains: Ciccone
Thank you for the deep dive into the men's Giro d'Italia. Overview of the course and the favorites in all of the categories is great to hear and the predictions, even if they are wildly incorrect at times, are a lot of fun. My only question is: Why is there no in depth deep dive for the La Vuelta Femenina? Here is a grand tour race that is wide open to who will win and yet there is no deep dive or even a mention. Women's racing is much more exciting than the men's grand tour and it needs all the exposure it can get. There should be a half hour show on this race.
So, a preview of the Giro, which is a week away, but no preview of the Vuelta Femenina, which starts this weekend. Need to have a look at that misogyny problem, GCN.
Did I miss it…or intentional omission… Issac del Torro ???
If disaster strikes, Jonas will loose, other than that, after Blockhauss and the ITT, he will be already minutes in front of the competition. In my humble opinion of course. The Giro is impredicble, however, I thing is going to be a nice 3 weeks training for Vingegard to be really sharp for the Tour.
If you are betting on everybody other than Vingegaard, you need to call a helpline for your gambling addiction.
JV will win only Ayuso is anywhere near him on the long climbs but even then JV is tgst much better
I don't wish anyone bad luck, but if Jonas wasn't in this race… it would be so wide open, with b-list Italian GC hopefuls who all have at least 1 bad day, fighting for an improbable GT victory… it would be absolutely awesome!… Sadly, we've got a Visma procession… will be quite boring, in comparison.
Blockhaus – Di Luca 2009 🔥🔥
1) Vigegaard
2) Pellizzari +7 Minutes
3) Bernal +10 Minutes
It is not Tobias.Lund Anderson it is Tobias Lund Andresen (son of Andreas, not son of Anders), anyway great preview show.