Pool tips for the Giro d'Italia 2023: Many roads lead to Rome, but shortcuts are also required

Whether it's football, cycling or darts - sports and betting pools just go hand in hand. In cycling, it's often the most fun to test your cycling knowledge (and/or luck) with friends and acquaintances during the grand tours, so that certainly applies to the upcoming Giro as well. IDLProCycling.com highlights some riders who may not have been on your list yet and substantiates those choices.

The Giro d'Italia will start with a time trial on Saturday and after three weeks of racing, numerous hills, several sprint stages and multiple ferocious mountains, the race will finish in Rome - the capital of Italy and the metropolis where all roads converge.

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Vincenzo Albanese - EOLO-Kometa

The first tip we're sharing is Vincenzo Albanese, the only rider who was also included on this list last year. It's not surprising, as the tiny Italian almost always delivers strong results. His remarks after the first stage of the recent Tour of Asturias, in which he finished second, are telling. "At least I was able to finish second (again), but I'm really disappointed."

The fact that someone complains while they made it onto the podium is in any case a sign of good form. For Albanese, this certainly did not come easily, as he suffered a serious accident in January that kept the strong sprinter from EOLO-Kometa off his bike until April 11th. However, his results this season speak volumes - despite the fact he's only just getting started.

In the Tour of Sicily, he finished in the top five in every stage, while Albanese finished on the podium in two of the three stages in Asturias. Last year, we saw him finish in the top ten of a race no less than 28 (!) times, whereas in the Giro he has finished in the top fifteen no less than nine times in the past.

Ilan Van Wilder - Soudal Quick-Step

Pool tip number two is Ilan Van Wilder, the man who, along with Jan Hirt, will have to support Remco Evenepoel the longest in the Giro d'Italia. The Czech rider talked about it in an interview with IDLProCycling.com, saying "Ilan is having a good season so far, so I expect him to be better than me in the first part of the Giro. In that case, he will be the last man for Remco. Towards the third week, I hope to get better and then I would like to be the last man. But ultimately, it doesn't matter who it is, as long as someone stays with him for as long as possible."

In Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Van Wilder, who had already finished fourteenth in the Flèche Wallonne a few days earlier, demonstrated that he is in excellent shape. The Belgian managed to get Evenepoel in a good position, but when he had to let go, there were only four riders left in his wheel. This confirmed the 22-year-old's strong performance in the Tour of the Algarve earlier this year, where he finished third.

At Soudal Quick-Step, the whole team is usually riding in support of Evenepoel, but that does not mean that the other riders do not get any opportunities. For example, Davide Ballerini is allowed to sprint when Evenepoel is safe, but for Van Wilder, this means that he can go all-out at least twice in the time trials. On the first day and the penultimate day, Van Wilder can certainly go for a great result himself.

Ben Healy - EF Education-EasyPost

If you only watch the grand tours, you may not have heard of Ben Healy yet. However, we assume that most people who visit this cycling website already have this Irishman on their radar. As part of EF Education-EasyPost, he was the revelation of the last spring season, with surprising second places in the Flèche Wallonne and the Amstel Gold Race, and a fourth place in Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Having barely recovered from what happened to him in the Netherlands and Belgium, Healy - who has come up on the radar just as surprisingly as our bonus tip Jay Vine, for those who are reading all of this article - traveled to Italy for his first grand tour. With his well-known time trial skills - he finished sixth on a completely flat European Championship last year - and physique, he should be able to keep up in the mountains too. "The longer climbs are also a big unknown for me," he told IDLProCycling.com a few days before the start. "I will be tested, but it should suit me. If my legs are good, I don't see why I wouldn't be able to handle the longer climbs."

We don't necessarily see Healy as a general classification rider, but rather someone who can go for stage wins in the transition stages. That's how the youngster sees it too. "In the Giro, I will have to figure out whether I can maintain the level of the spring season. I have rested well and will take it day by day. Hopefully my legs will remain strong. I love racing in Italy and with my offensive style, this tour probably suits me well."

Fillipo Fiorelli - Green Project-Bardiani-CSF-Faizané

In the category Albanese, there is also Filippo Fiorelli, a rider for another smaller Italian team: Green Project-Bardiani-CSF-Faizané. He is starting his fourth edition of the Giro d'Italia, in which he has already achieved a total of five top ten finishes. However, his team knows that there could be more in store for him this year.

Fiorelli is not someone who excels in high-speed sprints, but rather a rider who emerges when things get a little tougher. And there happen to be many of those types of situations in the upcoming Giro d'Italia, which also tempted better climbing sprinters like Michael Matthews and Mads Pedersen to participate.

His team describes his chances in typical Italian fashion: this Giro must be Fiorelli's "Giro of Redemption," in which he is THE designated person for the sprints. With a sixth place in a tough Italian championship and a fifth place in the Bretagne Classic, won by Wout van Aert, he has already shown that there is more in store after his early withdrawal from last year's Giro.

Santiago Buitrago - Bahrain Victorious

Bahrain Victorious is one of the most interesting teams for the upcoming Giro d'Italia. The team disposed of four riders - Jack Haig, Gino Mäder, Damiano Caruso and Santiago Buitrago - who have already demonstrated that they can compete for the overall classification. In this article, we'll focus on Buitrago, as he has demonstrated in Liège-Bastogne-Liège that he can compete with the big names in an extremely tough race.

In La Doyenne, he stood on the podium next to stars such as Tadej Pogacar and Tom Pidcock, which is indicative of the status he is gradually building. This is also evident for the Giro d'Italia: team manager Gorazd Stangelj announced that Haig is the main man for Bahrain Victorious, but in reality, Caruso and Haig are not far off due to their good performances in the Tour of Romandie and Liège. Additionally, we should not forget that the 23-year-old Colombian also did well in the highly competitive Ruta del Sol earlier this year, won by Pogacar.

After his third place in Liège, Buitrago was very clear during the press conference. "To stand on the podium here with Evenepoel and Pidcock is something else for me. This third place is a big source of motivation for the Giro, my biggest goal of the year," said the man who has both a good punchiness as well as climbing skills for longer ascents.

Jake Stewart - Groupama-FDJ

Next in line is Jake Stewart, the second sprinter after Arnaud Démare, who is not starting in the Giro, at Groupama-FDJ. While Démare and David Gaudu are battling each other at the French team for the Tour de France, Stewart and GC leader Thibaut Pinot seem to get along a bit better.

As a 23-year-old rider, Stewart is gradually entering the period where he needs to show what he's worth. In last year's Vuelta, he was able to make his debut in a grand tour, but this adventure lasted only seven days due to illness. Nevertheless, he already managed to finish around the top ten in those stages.

At his team, Groupama-FDJ, they firmly believe in Stewart's abilities, who is also known as a rider who can handle a climb. In preparation for the Giro, he was sent to train at altitude (Tenerife) with his regular lead-out man Fabian Lienhard, while Ignatas Konovalovas - a long-time member of Démare's support team - was also added to the team at the last minute.

Aurélien Paret-Peintre - AG2R Citroën Team

Actually, there are some interesting riders designated as their teams' main rider for the general classification for this Giro: Einer Rubio (Movistar), Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla), Lorenzo Fortunato (EOLO-Kometa) and Aurélien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroën Team) are not the first names that come to mind in terms of grand tour contenders, but they will give it their all in this tour.

However, there is something to be said for all of their chances. Paret-Peintre is a rider who could be in pink after a week, just like Juan Pedro López (2022) and Attila Valter (2021). The Frenchman spent no less than twenty days on Mount Etna with his regular teammate Mickaël Cherel, who was Romain Bardet's loyal helper for years, to prepare in the best possible way for this Tour of Italy.

With his decently strong sprint, Paret-Peintre - who himself said he secretly aims for a stage win - can still ride for a good result in the general classification, although we should keep in mind that Andrea Vendrame is also very fast on behalf of AG2R Citroën Team. The Frenchman is certainly a better climber, as he demonstrated this year during Paris-Nice, where he finished fourth on La Loge des Gardes, ahead of Jonas Vingegaard, Bardet, Daniel Felipe Martínez and Simon Yates.

Lorenzo Rota - Intermarché-Circus-Wanty

At Intermarché-Circus-Wanty, they ended up with two riders (Jan Hirt and Domenico Pozzovivo) in the top ten of the Giro d'Italia last year and they also won a stage thanks to Biniam Girmay, but this season they are taking a slightly different approach. The team of Aike Visbeek is going to the Giro with only freestyle riders and two sprinters (Niccolo Bonifazio and Arne Marit).

One of those pawns is Lorenzo Rota, who is being pushed forward by his team in the transition stages as a potential stage hunter. Last year, he came very close with a second place in Genoa, while also showing good things in the Tour of Belgium (fourth), Clasica San Sebastian (tenth), Tour of the Czech Republic (win) and the World Championships (thirteenth).

Visbeek stated at the beginning of this year that he expected Rota to take a step forward, and with an eighth place in the highly competitive Ruta del Sol, he seemed to be on the right track. Later, stomach problems affected his preparation for the Italian spring season races, but after a solid preparation, he seems to be in good shape just in time. In Eschborn Frankfurt, he was the strongest in the race together with Marc Hirschi, which led to a fifth place. Also, not unimportantly, Rota is a proud Italian who was already exploring stages mid-April. As a local, he has marked the sixteenth stage towards Bergamo with a big X on his calendar.

Marius Mayrhofer - Team DSM

The penultimate spot in this selection of riders is reserved for Marius Mayrhofer, a young man whom you may not know if you only recently started watching cycling at home - say, since the Omloop. The 23-year-old German from Team DSM had already won a WorldTour race at that point, clinching the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Geelong with a phenomenal sprint. For him, it was the icing on the cake of a successful trip Down Under, where he demonstrated his strong climbing abilities.

After that, Mayrhofer's form took a hit. He crashed in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Classic Brugge-De Panne and fell ill twice this spring season. To make matters worse, he developed tendonitis while training on Tenerife with Team DSM in April, requiring him to take a week off.

In the Giro documentary series which DSM is launching on Thursday, Mayrhofer is one of the central figures, just as he will need to be for the upcoming Giro d'Italia. With compatriot Niklas Märkl, he has a regular lead-out, while Alberto Dainese, last year's stage winner in the Giro, was called in at the last minute to replace Henri Vandenabeele. The Italian was supposed to start in Tro Bro Léon on Sunday. The fact that Mayrhofer was allowed to train at altitude and was also followed by the cameras probably speaks volumes about the allocation of positions within Team DSM.

Matthew Riccitello - Israel-Premier Tech

"Riding with the future. Mark my words, remember this name - Matthew Riccitello." Signed, Lance Armstrong, mid-2020. At that time, Matthew Riccitello was barely eighteen years old but could already draw on a lot of sympathy from the man who dominated the cycling sport for years.

Today, we speak of that same Riccitello as a 21-year-old climber for Israel-Premier Tech who is preparing for his first grand tour. At 55 kilograms, he already showed some impressive skills during his early months as a full-time professional. For example, he won the youth classification in the Tour of San Juan, finished seventeenth in his first WorldTour race in the United Arab Emirates and recently climbed with the best during the Tour of the Alps.

In his first grand tour, he will start alongside experienced rider Domenico Pozzovivo, without too much pressure. But to use Armstrong's words: we will remember the name Riccitello for now - if only because he has a few very impressive Strava KOMs to his name.

Tom van der Salm (Twitter: @TomvanderSalm)

Are you IDL Pro Cycling’s ultimate cycling expert? Then play in the IDL Subleague during the Giro!