Women’s Giro Rosa 2020 Stage 1 Preview – Tips, Contenders, Profile

The 2020 Giro Rosa kicks off with a 16.8km team time trial, everyone’s least favourite kind of race to watch. Luckily that’s not an issue as an there’s no live TV coverage once again. The Giro Rosa is the major stage race in the women’s road racing calendar. The winners list contains the greatest names in the sport, 5-time winner Fabiana Luperini and the other multiple winners, Nicole Brändli, Edita Pučinskaitė, Mara Abbott, Marianne Vos, Anna van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten. It’s race that only the best and consistent climbers can win.

This year’s race sees a team time trial create some initial time gaps in the general classification. A lumpy Stage 2 should sort it out again before a steep finish to Stage 3. Stage 4 will suit the climbers over the puncheurs and Stage 5 might see a sprint finish, despite the large climb in the middle of it. Stage 6 could be a breakaway candidate or alternatively a sprint win. It’s similar for Stage 7 where a pair of late climbs should see the sprinters distanced. Stage 8 finishes with 3.3km at 12.6%, puncheurs might be able to hang on, but it should be one for the climbers again. It’s the same for Stage 9, the 9.1km climb is repeated 4 times but it’s only a 4.3% average. It’ll be a last chance for GC riders to gain time before the finish.

Teams

• Mitchelton-Scott
• Ale BTC Ljubljana
• Aromitalia Vaiano
• Astana
• BePink
• Bizkaia Durango
• Boels-Dolmans
• Canyon SRAM
• CCC-Liv
• Ceratizit-WNT
• Cogeas-Mettler
• Cronos Casa Dorada
• Paule Ka
• Eurotarget-Bianchi-Vittoria
• FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope
• Lotto Soudal Ladies
• Lviv Cycling
• Movistar
• Servetto-Piumate-Beltrami TSA
• Team Sunweb
• Top Girls Fassa Bortolo
• Trek-Segafredo
• Valcar

Women’s Giro Rosa 2020 Stage 1 Profile

Women’s Giro Rosa 2020 Stage 1 Favourites

Canyon SRAM have 4 of the 6 riders that took them to the last held Worlds Team Time Trial in 2018. The only riders missing out at Alice Barnes and Trixi Worrack (who is now with Trek). The core group of Alena Amialsusik, Lisa Klein and Omer Shapira finished 8th, 9th and 15th in the recent European Championships TT to showcase their form. Boels-Dolmans also have 4 of the 6 riders that saw them finish 2nd in that 2018 Worlds Team Time Trial. Anna van der Breggen won the European Championships recently and will naturally drive the team on. Interestingly, no-one else on the team took part in that race, but Boels-Dolmans are always contenders.

Mitchelton-Scott have a 2-time World TT champion in Annemiek van Vleuten. Grace Brown is an Oceania and National champion in time trials, but the rest of the team is solid rather than spectacular in the discipline. They will consider a top-5 result a good one. Trek-Segafredo are big contenders for the stage win. They have 5 of the 6 riders that convincingly won the Vårgårda TTT last season – Liz Deignan is in for Trixi Worrack. Cordon-Ragot won a stage of the Tour de l’Ardeche last week but then abandoned because of a crash. Hopefully she is back to full fitness.

Team Sunweb will be driven forward by the newly crowned French TT Champion Juliette Labous and Canadian Leah Kirchmann. Lippert is a solid prologue rider and Floortje Mackaij is another rider who does well in shorter TTs. It’s the same story for the sprinters Alison Jackson and Coryn Rivera. They’re a solid mix and finished 3rd in Vårgårda last season. Ceratizit-WNT sprinter Kirsten Wild fits the same mould, having won shorter TTs in her long career. She’s been in the top-5 in the Healthy Ageing Tour TTs in recent years too. The team’s performance will be resting on the shoulders of TT specialist Lisa Brennauer, who won the Madrid Challenge TT last season. Lara Vieceli is also a solid time trialist but her form might not be the best after finishing only 20th in the National Champs recently.

Paule Ka has the pair of Elise Chabbey and Lizzy Banks, who were 12th and 13th in the recent European Championship TT. Young Kiwi Mikayla Harvey won the TT at the Tour de Bretagne last season and Marlen Reusser is another TT specialist. Reusser is now the 3-time Swiss National TT Champion, was 6th in last year’s World’s and regularly finishes in the top-5 of individual TTs. Paule Ka will be hoping for a podium finish.

Women’s Giro Rosa 2020 Stage 1 Outsiders

Cogeas-Mettler has a solid set of time triallists. Olga Zabelinskaya hasn’t been seen in a UCI race since the Dubai Women’s Tour earlier in the year. Her best recent top-level TT result was 7th at the Madrid Challenge last year and a couple of 2nd places in other lower-level races in 2019. Mia Radotić is the 9-time National TT Champion and Russian Mariia Novolodskaia is a climber who has won her last two races in Turkey and was 2nd in the Russian National Championships this year. She’s done well in TTs at 2.2 level before.

Ale BTC Ljubljana don’t feel like an obvious choice but Mavi Garcia is the new Spanish TT National Champion and Tatiana Guderzo was 5th place in the Italian Nat Champs recently. Maaike Boogaard has a solid TT and Eugenia Bujak was 8th in the Madrid Challenge TT last season. Bujak and Urša Pintar are both 2-time Slovenian National TT Champs as well.

Finally, there’s FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope. Emilia Fahlin has been Swedish National TT Champ 3 times early in her career, although she’s transitioned into more of a sprinter who does alright in shorter TTs now. Eugenie Duval has broken into the top-10 at the Chrono des Nations in previous years. Brodie Chapman is a good time triallist at 2.2 level, finishing 2nd in the Tour of the Gila TT last season. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig is a 3-time National TT Champion for Denmark. She’s been 4th in the 2018 Chrono des Nations but also snuck into the top-10 in the 2018 Emakumeen Bira and Giro Rosa TTs. They’re a dark horse but missing some of the big firepower that the favourites have.

Stage Prediction

1st
Trek-Segafredo
2nd
Boels-Dolmans
3rd
Canyon SRAM