PG - Giro d'Italia 2024 - Stage 1

Welcome to the 2024 Giro Predictor Game.

If you think the stats above look tough on the riders, spare a thought for the players! 21 stages to pick 4 riders and only two rest days. A veritable slog worthy of a gleaming trophy and a multi million dollar offer by Israel Premier Tech for your services.

The Course

Not a huge amount of climbing but with most of it packed into the second half of what is a short stage, it's unlikely to be an easy day for even the most climbiest of sprinters.

The Favourites

Pog will be the red hot bookies boy. Unless everyone decides to do the unthinkable on the first stage of a GT and for the first time in modern history, take it calmly, the sprinters won't stand a chance. Bardet has a better hope of a podium spot than Ewan. Maybe the hardiest can survive. Laporte if he's in good nick. Pithie, if he's recovered from his spring exploits which would be a minor miracle to be back to his best already. It looks too tough for even Milan. The Colle della Maddalena is 6.1k at 7.4%.topping out at with around 22k to go. With a load of descending and the San Vito's second passage to come, it really looks like it's going to favour the GC riders and the Ardennes types.

Outside of Pog there's no real standouts. An Ala revival would be nice. Narvaez and Martinez can both attack and sprint well enough. Lutsy looked good in Liege. As did the afore-mentioned Bardet and the A one of the parrot painting brothers. Mauri might stomp his way up the San Vito ahead too. Unfortunately I think the cat killer might do well. Shame Van Gils isn't here...

Here's your start list.

The Rules

In this game, only the race results matter. You're not committed to keeping the same riders throughout the series, you make fresh picks before every race. Our overall competition is just the sum of individual race scores. You're eligible for the overall even if you miss some races.

Pick 4 riders for the upcoming race. The order of your picks doesn't matter. All of your riders can score.

Riders score points down to 10th place. Less popular riders score more points than heavily-picked favourites. See below for scoring details.

The strict entry deadline is the official start time of the race, the neutralized roll-out or Départ Fictif. Be warned - if your post is timestamped one minute late your entry won't count! So do remember that there's no disadvantage to getting an entry in early, even the day before, because you may always change your picks up until the deadline. Feel free to rethink your picks when it emerges which riders are more or less popular with other players. If you make changes, post your revised 4 picks in a reply to your original post.

The Scoring

Head over to the spreadsheet to check how you fared. Any issues, please email us on... LeeVus@alone.com