93rd Giro d'Italia Begins Saturday!

There are only three left before the start of the 93rd edition of the Giro d'Italia on Saturday. The final starting roster has 198 riders of 22 teams.

Teams will arrive in Amsterdam on Wednesday. Thursday night is medical night when the biological passports of all riders will be confirmed. The Giro begins on Saturday with a 8.4km individual time trial through key parts of Amsterdam. This will be followed by two stages. On Sunday Amsterdam-Utrecht (210km) and Monday Amsterdam-Mittelburg (224km). Tuesday will be a transfer day back to Italy.

Here are the bib numbers of the "big": (1) to Cadel Evans (last year's winner is not defending his title), Garzelli (11), Scarponi (31), Vinokourov (41), Gasparotto (43), Voeckler (51), Bruseghin (61), Sastre (71), Pozzovivo (91), Modolo (93), Capelli (101), Millar (111), Vandevelde (112), Cunego (121), Petacchi (122), Simoni (123), Basso (131), Freire (161), Wiggins (171), Greipel (181), Pinotti (182), Pozzato (191), McEwen (193), and Gerdemann (201).

Amsterdam is geared up for the Giro with "GIROMANIA" from May 1 through 10. Some of the upcoming events are:

Cycling photos by Cor Vos, a photo exhibition held at the Amsterdam Public Library from 10 April to 30 May 2010.

Style Procession: Maybe they won't be the fastest bikes but when the Amsterdam style bicycle procession rolls out from Museumplein to Olympic Stadium on Saturday 8 May be sure there will be about 4,000 unusual bikes with cyclists in pink outfits atop of them. Get involved.

The Giro Public Bicycle Tour Amsterdam will start on Sunday, 9 May. The tour covers the official time trial route and part of the second and third stages of the official Giro d'Italia. This tour is open to everyone. The tour starts and finishes at the Olympic Stadium.

The Outdoor Giromania Pink edition on Sunday, May 9, is for die hard spinners. 4.5 hours of blood, sweat and tears under the stimulating tunes of three live DJ’s.

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,300 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.