Giro di Sicilia Preview 2023

Between Itzulia ending and two monumental monuments between the women's and men's Paris Roubaix - we're stoked that there's more cycling action with the Giro di Sicilia starting tomorrow.

There's not a ton of huge names at the event, so we're stretching the boundaries with our picks a little and we'll see how we fair after the four day affair. Read on for our value picks and Stage 1 takes.

Quicklinks

Startlist - Stage 1 Profile - Stage 2 Profile - Stage 3 Profile - Stage 4 Profile

Value Picks & Favourites GC

We've gone ahead with Ulissi and Albanese. Both have had strong recent performances and are above the 15.00 threshold we use as a heuristic for a value pick.

What's the twitter verse saying?

We expect Italian teams to perform well as they'd want to make a splash at a local race, so there may be some good contenders out of the local teams if you're willing to dig.

Course Preview

Stage 1

Seems fairly straightforward, with a medium level kicker at the end. It's difficult enough that it isn't a sprint stage

Value Picks & Favourites

Despite what our friend MaschBasch is saying we've gone with Louis Meintjes who we think is good value @ 67.00 compared to the other picks (say Ulissi @ 2.30). Meintjes is situated at 9.00 to win GC, so why not start on day 1 before two possible sprint stages?

Finn Fischer-Black also seems like good value @ 126.00 - but his recent performances aren't as strong as Meintjes, who's consistently shown his performance over the year, and in recent races.

Stage 2

Rouleur-esque stage but with nothing extremely challenging near the finish. Expect the break to win or a bunch sprint finish.

Stage 3

The climb is too early to cause many issues for the sprinters. Expect a bunch sprint. But not of pure sprinters because of the 5% kicker at the end.

Stage 4

We've got some monster climbs in this one. Specifically the 2nd of 17.6km @ 6.1% and 3rd climb of 10.2 @ 6.4%. Should iron out GC on the final day.