2022 Giro d’Italia Contenders Worth Looking Out For

It’s only a week until the start of the 2022 Giro d’Italia, the first Grand Tour of the season. The three-week stage race will start next Friday, on the 6th of May in Budapest, Hungary, and end on the 29th of May in Verona. Egan Bernal won the overall title last year but the Columbian is still recovering from his serious accident.  We can still find several top riders in the 2022 Giro d’Italia contenders worth looking out for. From former champions to the latest talents of the sport. 

The 105th edition of the Italian Grand Tour, the Giro d’Italia will begin next Friday. The first three stages will be hosted in Hungary before the race moves back to Italy. Cyclists will compete for three weeks on 21 stages. Including two individual time trials, several tough mountain stages, and seven flat ones for the sprinters. There will be summit finishes at Mount Etna, Blockhaus, and Marmolada, challenging even the best climbers. Sadly last year’s winner, Egan Bernal won’t be able to defend his title following his serious accident at the beginning of the year. In his absence, his teammate and former Giro winner Richard Carapaz can lead the Ineos team to success. 

2022 Giro d’Italia Contenders Worth Looking Out For Include Former Champions

As we already mentioned in our previous summary, the biggest favorite to win the overall title this year is the 2019 champion, Richard Carapaz. Online sportsbooks in Italy still offer the smallest odds, 2.25 for his victory. But we can find three more former Giro winners in this year’s field: another Ineos rider and the winner in 2020, Tao Geoghegan Hart. The 2017 winner, Tom Dumoulin will compete on his first Grand Tour since the 2020 Vuelta.  And two-time champion Vincenzo Nibali will co-lead the Astana team with Miguel Angel Lopez. Though Nibali’s odds to win his third title are quite high at 67.00,  no one should underestimate the 37-year-old Italian’s capabilities. 

We can also find another veteran cyclist in the 2022 Giro d’Italia contenders worth looking out for, Alejandro Valverde. The 42-year-old Spanish cyclist is still in an amazing form after finishing as a runner-up in this year’s Strade Bianche and La Fleche Wallone. The winner of the 2009 Vuelta has only raced once in his career at the Italian Grand Tour. In 2016 when he finished in third place in the overall competition. A similar result would be a small miracle from the Movistar leader which has the odds of 101.00 on bet365. But Valverde might get a stage win in the mountains. Another legend of the sport, Peter Sagan won’t compete in this year’s Giro, but there will be plenty of great sprinters to follow. 

Top Sprinters And Young Talents Going For Glory

The sprinter field will be also worth checking out with several top cyclists fighting for the ciclamino jersey. Including former points classification winners Mark Cavendish, Elia Viviani, Arnaud Demare, Fernando Gaviria, and two-time winner Giacomo Nizzolo. But Australian Caleb Ewan will also have a good chance of winning the title after two stage wins last year. And it will be also interesting to see how Eritrean Biniam Girmay, the winner of the 2022 Gent-Wevelgem can perform on his Grand Tour debut. According to the race organizers, seven stages will have a sprint finish. With lots of candidates hoping to cross the line first. 

One of the biggest stars of cycling, Mathieu van der Poel will also make his debut in this year’s Giro. The Dutch rider won two one-day classics this season and will try to add some stage wins to his already impressive result list. Other top young riders include Hungarian talent Attila Valter who wore the pink jersey for three stages last year. The FDJ rider will hope to repeat his performance supported by the home fans. While another young rider, the still only 23 years old Joao Almeida can even fight for the pink jersey after finishing fourth and sixth in the previous two seasons. With online gambling sites in Italy offering the odds of 9.00 for his overall victory. 

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