Making this Grand Tour the focus of his 2023 season, Remco Evenepoel looks set to go off as the favourite in the 2023 Giro d’Italia, which begins on Saturday.
The winner of the 2022 Vuelta a Espana, the Belgian is 2.00 with William Hill ahead of three grueling weeks that begins in Costa dei Trabocchi and ends in Rome, with 3,489 km of racing to be tackled in between.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: May 5th, 1:00 P.M. (BST)
He comes to Italy in winning form, having already won the UAE Tour and Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 2023.
Evenepoel is very much a part of the new generation of riders who are capable of winning Grand Tours despite their youth, and the 23-year-old will not have to contend with the poster boy of that generation, Tadej Pogacar, who is focusing on the Tour de France.
The Soudal Quick-Step rider’s main challenger will be Team Jumbo-Visma’s Primoz Roglic, who is listed at 2.75 with William Hill.
It was Evenepoel who ended Roglic’s run of successive Vuelta wins, at three, though the Slovenian did wear the red jersey for one day in September.
This year, Roglic has won the Volta a Catalunya and has had success on Italian roads already thanks to victory in Tirreno-Adriatico in March. He has won three Giro stages but is yet to take a jersey of any colour.
Next best-fancied to take the Maglia Rosa is the British pairing of Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart, at 11.00 and 13.00 respectively.
Thomas seems to have put the bad luck that has plagued him in recent years behind him but will need a step up in form; the Ineos Grenadiers man was 15th in the Tour of the Alps last month, though that was an improvement on 45th in the Volta a Catalunya.
Winner of the Tour of the Alps and third in Tirreno-Adriatico, Thomas’ teammate Geoghegan Hart appears primed and ready for the Italian challenge. The 28-year-old will be making his first Giro appearance since winning the race in 2020, the only time he has completed the event.
Last year’s top three of Jai Hindley, Richard Carapaz and Mikel Landa will not be participating. At 15.00, Joao Almeida looks best set to upset the top four, while Jay Vine, Alexander Vlasov (both 21.00) and Jack Haig (26.00) will all have ambitions of wearing pink in Rome.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: May 5th, 1:00 P.M. (BST)
With few flat stages, whichever sprinter can cope best with the hills is likely to take the points classification. Mads Pedersen is the clear 1.67 favourite ahead of Fernando Gaviria at 5.50.
