Doom scenario like the 2020 Tour start, riders on rollers, and Surrel KOMs: how dangerous is the Giro start in Albania?

Overheard at the team presentation in Tirana on Wednesday: "Albania, I didn't exactly have that on my checklist," said Maikel Zijlaard. Tom Pidcock spoke about the lack of a "Grand Tour feeling in a country with no cycling history" but also acknowledged that it is a privilege of being a cyclist to get to places you would not normally visit. Wout van Aert, who loves to travel, feels the same way. When his program was announced in January, he said the Giro start appealed to him. Something a little different, you know.

However, there are also some concerns. The first stage and the time trial will mainly occur in Tirana, where traffic rules seem non-existent. I am glad to be alive after a crazy taxi ride from the Visma | Lease a Bike hotel to the press center, and even an average drive through the city will quickly turn you into a lunatic, thanks to the Albanian drivers who are constantly honking, overtaking, and are extremely impatient. In terms of traffic rules, Tirana is more like an average country in Southeast Asia or Africa.

Exploring is, therefore, quite a challenge for the riders, although a few dared to do so. We quote the Wereldreizigersclub: "If you can drive in Tirana without getting hurt, you can drive anywhere. The traffic is chaos at its best. Cars drive with two, three, or four cars side by side on roads without lanes, there are no right-of-way rules at roundabouts, and the law of the jungle prevails, with non-stop honking. Driving in Tirana is for fearless drivers who have the guts to claim their space on the road with their cars."

In addition, the quality of the roads is not very good, making it very difficult for the teams to even get into the city center with their equipment. The hotel where Visma | Lease a Bike, Soudal Quick-Step, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, EF Education-EasyPost, and VF Group-Bardiani are staying, is only ten kilometers from the center, but this is easily a thirty to forty-minute drive to the busy city center. Let alone with a team bus. For the teams in Durres, the starting point on Friday, which is 40 kilometers away, easily takes more than an hour. These include Decathlon AG2R, Picnic PostNL, Jayco AlUla, Bahrain Victorious, Alpecin-Deceuinck, and Israel-Premier Tech.

The organization responded by suggesting alternative cycling routes to the teams via GPX, which were gratefully accepted. However, caution was still required, as the roads in Albania are known for their surprises, such as puddles and potholes. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe decided to limit the risks by staying off their bikes altogether: the German team's riders will only be training on rollers in the run-up to the Giro.

Visma | Lease a Bike decided to take the bus to a quieter spot, from where they would return to the hotel. The eight riders of the Dutch team had to be careful on the way back to the hotel, where even cars were thrown from side to side by the numerous potholes. In addition, other road users are not really used to the presence of cyclists.

Intermarché-Wanty allowed the riders onto the course, but the team car couldn't follow the riders' route. "To ensure the safety of the riders, we didn't think it was wise to go on the course," said a sports director from another team. "Imagine if something happens in traffic... then you have to call in a backup, and that's difficult enough, knowing that the start is in Albania. Not to mention the equipment you have to get here."

Towards the end of the afternoon on Friday, there may also be some rain for the riders in Tirana, but none of the teams are particularly worried about this. "The roads on that local circuit are fine, so the organization has done well. You may have to watch out for fuel on the road when it rains. I spontaneously think of the first stage of the Tour de France in Nice, should it rain," said a sports director. In that Tour, the first stage was neutralized after crashes and slippery roads, and the stage ultimately went to Alexander Kristoff.

The KOM on Friday's presumably decisive Surrel climb is currently held by INEOS Grenadiers rider Egan Bernal and Lidl-Trek rider Giulio Ciccone, who completed the 3.3 steepest kilometers at 5.3 percent in just over seven minutes, at least until Thursday afternoon, when Bahrain Victorious went out to scout the course. Most of the favorites are not showing up on Friday's course, unlike their sports directors, who do the recon by car.