All set for the Grande Partenza
Listen to our pre-Giro d'Italia episodes before Friday's opening stage in Albania
Simon Gill’s photograph of Caleb Ewan winning a stage of the 2017 Giro d’Italia in Alberobello, with the conical, limestone dwellings, or trulli, providing a spectacular backdrop. After the grande partenza in Albania, the Giro will resume on Italian soil from Alberobello when stage four rolls out of town next Tuesday. Ewan – a five-time Giro stage winner – announced earlier this week his retirement with immediate effect after a short spell with the Ineos Grenadiers team, during which he won stages of both races he started for them, the Settimana Coppi e Bartali and Itzulia.
We’re almost ready for the tenth Giro d’Italia The Cycling Podcast has covered from start to finish – the 11th if you count our lockdown edition, Our Giro, in May 2020. Subscribe to The Cycling Podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts so you’ll be notified as soon as our latest episode drops, and we hope you enjoy the Giro. In the meantime, there are a few episodes online to get you in the Giro mood…
Cozze, Amaraterra’s theme of the Giro d’Italia
Cozze by London-based pizzica band Amaraterra has been the theme tune to our Giro d’Italia coverage since the first edition we covered with daily episodes back in 2016. The first Italian stages will travel through Puglia and Basilicata, which is the heartland of this style of folk music.
Online now: The XL Preview
Daniel Friebe is joined by Brian Nygaard and Rob Hatch to preview the first grand tour of the season. It’ll be a Pog-free Giro d’Italia, but can anyone stop another Slovenian, Primož Roglič, from winning the pink jersey? At 35, he’d be the oldest Giro champion of all-time, but his grand tour record is formidable, with five overall wins in the past six seasons, including the 2023 Giro. He has another former Giro winner, Jai Hindley, alongside him in the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team.
The strongest challenge is likely to come from UAE-Team Emirates, who have the young pretender Juan Ayuso and his experienced teammate Adam Yates to share the burden of leadership.
In the preview episode, Daniel, Brian and Rob talk about the riders to watch, the stages where the race will come alive, and everything else to look (and listen) out for as the race makes its way from Albania to Rome. We also introduce our new signing for the Giro, Michele Pelacci.
Online now: Land of Eagles
This first KM0 episode of the Giro is available for everyone to listen to, not just Friends of the Podcast subscribers. It’s called Land of Eagles and it’s an unmissable episode that almost eludes description. You’ll have to listen to make up your own mind. It begins with a listener’s enigmatic DM to Daniel Friebe and it’s a story that isn’t about professional cycling and yet it captures so much of the essence and spirit of the grand tours and Albania, the country that will be hosting the grande partenza this weekend. Put it this way, press play and see where the journey takes you…
Online now for Friends of the Podcast: Big Brother
Daniel’s conversation with John Foot, professor of modern Italian history at the University of Bristol, has become one of our finest pre-Giro traditions. In this episode John takes us through a century of Albania’s long and tangled relationship with Italy, the fall of Communism in the early 1990s, and what the two countries have in common today.
Online now: Vini, Vidi, Vici
Another tradition is the launch of the Giro d’Italia case of wine, curated by Greg Andrews and Luciana Girotto of Dvine Cellars in London. This year’s six wines take us from Puglia in the heel of Italy via Campania, Emilia-Romagna, the Veneto and up to Piedmont in the north and they both celebrate and tell their own story about Italy. You can listen to the episode wherever you listen to your podcasts, and you can order the case below. Unfortunately, cases can only be ordered by listeners based in the UK but full details of the wines are in the episode show notes and you should be able to source similar wines from the same regions wherever you are.
Daily episodes from the Giro d’Italia on The Cycling Podcast
• Starts on Thursday evening, after Daniel and Lionel touchdown in Tirana. Keep an eye on your email inbox for details of our own mini team presentation episode
• Daily episodes covering the Giro stages from Durres to Rome
• Another episode of KM0 on the first rest day (Monday) as the Giro entourage makes its way over the Adriatic
• Arrivée with Rose Manley analysing La Vuelta Femenina
Cozze has been stuck in my head for the past year, I’m so ready for the Giro!
And hopefully some Ciro too after all “no Ciro no Giro” ?