Just 3 days from the start of the 107th edition of Giro d’Italia 2024which will start on Saturday 4 May from Turin, the time has come to present the main stage hunters which will animate the interlocutory stages and escapes of this edition. In 2023, in fact, 10 first-hour actions reached the finish line, and it is therefore important to immediately get to know the runners who hope to be protagonists with long-range actions or finisseur shots.
After presenting i main ranking men and of most anticipated sprintershere is the complete overview of the “free hitters” of this edition
Here are all the stage hunters of the 2024 Giro
Filippo Ganna
The champion of Ineos Grenadiers returns to the Giro after a shortened spring due to the big Olympic goal next summer. The Piedmontese wants to return to that stage victory that he has missed since 2021and it is not certain that it will be limited to two time trials to try, even if the team has strong interests in the general classification. At the last Vuelta we also discovered him as a sprinter, but given the field of this edition, it is unlikely that he will decide to throw himself into the fray.
Christophe Laporte
The European champion replaces the unfortunate Wout Van Aert in the Visma-Lease a Bike and he will have to try not to make the Belgian regret his absence. The task is more complicated than ever, but Laporte has shown that on the best days he can compete with anyone in the classics. Having a pure sprinter in the team (Olav Kooij), one can think that there will be some days with uncertain endings that will see him as the protagonist, or an inclusion of him in the great escapes of the second week.
Biniam Girmay
The Eritrean of Intermarché-Wanty back to the Giro two years after the exploit which led him to duel on equal terms with Mathieu Van der Poel, also beating him in Jesi. From that moment things have changed a bit, and Bini’s performances have stabilized at a good level, although without repeating the rings of 2022. His approach to the Giro is deliberately modeled on that of two years ago, and there are many opportunities to be a protagonist.
Julian Alaphilippe
The 31-year-old Julian makes his debut at the Giro, who after 9 Tours de France wants to experience the Corsa Rosa being able enjoy wide freedoms. Despite in his Soudal-Quick Step half the team is responsible for taking care of Tim Merlier’s sprints for the former world champion a race full of attack in search of a stage victory. He certainly doesn’t lack class and experience, and his leg also seems to have regained its strength in recent months. We will definitely see LouLou leading the race a lot.
Michael Woods
The years don’t seem to pass for the Canadian from FreePalestine, who arrived late at professionalism and is one of the best around when it comes to finishing the escapes in the mountain caps. “Rusty” arrives at this Giro with the clear intent of winning a stage to complete the trilogy of successes in the grand toursand despite quite a lot of competition, the goal seems within his reach.
Alexey Lutsenko
The surprise came with the summoning of the Kazakh captain of theAstana, it now remains to be understood with what ambitions Lutsenko will face the 21 days of racing. In his ropes there is both the possibility of ranking and that of attacking repeatedly looking for stage wins. Being able to count on the presence of Lorenzo Fortunato with the final top 10 objective, perhaps we could hypothesize a freer Giro for him, but the first mountains will give us the answer.
Filippo Zana
The Venetian climber is constantly growing, and the stage success obtained last year in Val di Zoldo, beating important names, was his consecration. In its Jayco-AlUla Eddie Dunbar and Luke Plapp will have classification duties, and another one is expected for Filippo I turn to the attack, perhaps with the aim of Maglia Azzurra.
Laurence Pithie
The young New Zealander from Groupama-FDJ at the beginning of the season he was unknown to most, but after an extraordinary spring for performances, consistency and results his status within the group has already changed. His first experience in a grand tour it will first and foremost be a test, but we expect to see him protagonist in the stages that will most resemble a classic, his favorite terrain. Also pay attention to thegreat quick ideain the case of limited sprints it could leave its mark.
Jasper Stuyven
The Belgian of Lidl Trek instead he is a much more well-known and experienced name, who strongly wanted to race the Giro despite a collarbone injury. Before himself, Jasper he will have a fundamental role in Jonathan Milan’s very strong trainbut the leg he showed a couple of months ago allows him to play too first-hand chancesprobably in contexts of numerous escapes.
Nairo Quintana
Ten years after his victory, the Colombian returns to the Giro d’Italia with the same lineup Movistar which launched him into great cycling, but with different ambitions. As he himself admitted, in fact, after a year’s break and with 33 years on his identity card, the leg is no longer the same as in the old daysbut Nairo is highly motivated to make his mark, hoping to win a mountain stage which would send his Colombian fans into raptures.
Matteo Trentin
It is also a return after a long time for Matteo, whose last participation in the Giro dates back to 2016. With her new formation, the ambitious Swiss TudorTrentin hopes to face a protagonist race, when he will not have the role of last man for teammate Alberto Dainese. After 3 stages won at the Tour and 4 at the Vuelta, the hope is to add one to the home grand tour, perhaps repeating what was done in 2016 in Pinerolo, winning in the sprint over his teammates in a large breakaway.
Other names not to be underestimated
Since it is a poorly defined category and susceptible to variations, it is not easy to list all the runners who could enjoy the right freedoms to become protagonists in the first person. For example, this is the case with Jhonatan Narváez And Magnus Sheffieldmen from the classics of great depth at Ineos Grenadiers, but who will easily be busy dragging the group away from the finish line, the same fate that could befall Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike).
The one who will certainly have wide margins of movement is the young man Ewen Costioua talent from Arkéa-B&B Hotels who expresses himself best on the hills compared to the big climbs, while his teammate Jenthe Biermans he is a classics man and will look for places in the restricted sprints. Italians Simone Velasco And Davide Ballerini they hope to bring a stage success to Astana, as he will try to do Stefano Oldani at Cofidis.
Curiosity then to see if Florian Lipowitz (Bora-Hansgrohe) will try to make the standings or will throw themselves into breakaways after an excellent Romandie. It was precisely in Switzerland that he showed off Andrea Vendramewho has the condition to repeat the success already obtained in 2021, while his teammate at Decathlon-AG2R, Aurélien Paret-Peintre he is in the best year of his career and knows how to combine a good ranking with an offensive run
Finally, even at EF Education-EasyPost there is attention to escapes with men like Esteban Chaves And Michael Valgren. He has already proven himself to be a man of escapes Marco Frigo (FreePalestine), who deserves a stage success after the excellent Giro 2023. Instead he makes his debut Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek), who is part of a group of hill classic runners also including Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-Quick Step), Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) e Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe).
