Last year Jonathan Milan came home with the cyclamen shirtsymbol of the points classification, and this year the Friulian is ready to defend the title won in Rome in 2023.
Winning for Milan will not be easy even if he has a good chance of success, but at the start there will be several runners ready to challenge him to win one of the most loved jerseys of the pink race. In the last edition, the boy from Tolmezzo won a stage and the points classification on his debut and was also second four times. Now, having moved to Lidl-Trek, he seems to have taken a further step forward and he demonstrated it by winning two stages at the Tirreno-Adriatico in March.
Among Milan’s challengers, on paper Tim Merlier is the fastest of the group, but it will be necessary to understand if the Belgian will be able to complete the three weeks of racing. The thirty-one year old from Soudal Quick-Step has already won seven times this season and in Italy he will certainly aim to enrich his tally.
However, of the three grand tours he has contested so far, the Belgian has only completed one, the 2022 Vuelta, and it remains to be seen whether his intentions will also include racing the Giro for the points classification. In his only participation in the pink race in 2021, Merlier stopped on the tenth stage and at the Tour of the same year he retired on the ninth day of racing.
There is one of the rookies who can do very well Olav Kooij which will make its debut in a grand tour. The Dutchman is only 22 years old, but he has already proven himself to be one of the fastest riders in the peloton. Just look at his results this season, where he won the Clasica de Almeria, then won a stage of the UAE Tour and two at Paris-Nice and at Gent-Wevelgem he finished sixth. In Belgium Kooij is called the cheetah of Numansdorp, because he has no problems with certain types of climbs and this is a skill that will certainly come in handy for the points classification.
Fabio Jakobsen he will be at his first Giro d’Italia and, although he has only achieved one victory this season at the Tour of Turkey, he wants to do well but it will also be difficult for him to overcome the mountains of the third week. Furthermore the Dutchman will race the Tour de France and if he wins a stage soon it is possible that he will abandon the race to be fresh for the Grande Boucle.
Despite having started the Giro 5 times, Caleb Ewan he has never reached the end of the pink race (even if this year the Tour de France is not in his programme), so no one knows if his intentions will really be to race for the points classification. We are certain, however, that he will try to obtain stage victories.
For Italy, in addition to Milan, there is Alberto Dainese who has already participated in the Giro in 2022 and 2023 and won a stage. The twenty-six year old from Abano Terme also managed to win a stage at last year’s Vuelta di Spagna. Having joined Sunweb and then DSM, in this Giro he will defend the colors of Cancellara’s Tudor and, probably for this reason, he will commit to competing for the cyclamen jersey. For Alpecin-Deceuninck there is Kaden Groves who in his palmares can already boast victory in the points classification of the 2023 Vuelta de España with three stage victories. Groves then won the fifth stage of the last Giro, arriving in Salerno, putting riders of the caliber of Milan and Pedersen behind him.
Also Biniam Girmay will put himself to the test in this Giro d’Italia: in 2022, he won a stage in Jesi ahead of Mathieu van der Poel, but immediately afterwards he was forced to retire due to the bottle cap he had opened on stage, which badly hit him eye. His crash at Through Flanders certainly didn’t help him at the start of the season, but now he should have overcome everything and therefore he too is ready to fight. We must also remember that in 2022 before retiring, he was in second place in the points classification.
Among the most experienced sprinters there is Fernando Gaviriawho won the Giro points classification in 2017 and subsequently finished second in 2022 and third in 2021. The season started well for him and after periods in the shadows, for him, this could be the opportunity to get back under the spotlight.
Of course we cannot exclude it from this ranking Tadej Pogacar, which has already recorded seven victories in 2024 in ten days of racing. The Slovenian will certainly not aim for the classification for the cyclamen jersey, but considering his extraordinary skills, the points classification could become his thanks to his attacks from afar and the flying finishes that he will find on his way.
However, there will also be some fighting for the cyclamen jersey Laurence Pithie, Giovanni Lonardi, Ethan Vernon, Juan Sébastian Molano, Phil Bauhaus and Danny van Poppel.
THE RULES. To understand the calculation of points, you need to do simple additions, following a very specific scheme. After the most recent changes, you can earn more points on flat stages than on mountain stages. The winner of a flat stage, therefore for sprinters, receives 50 points for the cyclamen jersey classification, while the winner of a mountain stage and that of a time trial will receive 15 points. For the hilly stages a different scoring system has been developed which awards 25 points to the winner.
In the six flat stages (3, 4, 11, 13, 18 and 21) the following points will be assigned at the finish line: 50 – 35 – 25 – 18 – 14 – 12 – 10 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1.
While in the hilly hamlets (1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12 and 19), the points awarded will be: 25 – 18 – 12 – 8 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1.
In the mountain stages and individual time trials (Mountain stages 7, 8, 15, 16, 17 and 20 – Time trial stages 7 and 14), the following will be assigned: 15 – 12 – 9 – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1.
As regards the intermediate sprints that will be found along the route, the points will be assigned: 12 – 8 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1.
