Thanks to “Maglia Rosa: Triumph and Tragedy at the Giro d’Italia” by British author/Italian resident Herbie Sykes we have not only an English-language history of the Giro d’Italia, which is in itself distressingly rare, but an extraordinarily entertaining book.

As we wait for the 2023 battle of the Giro d'Italia to kick-off with the first stage individual time trial of 19.6 kilometres in the Abruzzo region, this would be a good time for a history lesson. A quick run through the 'Rosa' back-story.

As we look forward to a titanic struggle between Evenepoel and Roglic for the Maglia Rosa. Remco won his first Grand Tour, the Vuelta, in September 2022 and is now going for his second nine months later. In 1981 only three days separated the two races and Giovanni Battaglin, in his book “48 Days”, tells the story of how he won both.

Giro Time! The best Italian negroni bars are often discovered by accident, or when you least expect it.  Early on in my career chasing the modern Giro d'Italia I began logging the best negronis, bars, and ristoranti as my travels took me to all corners of Italy.  Here are 5 of the best negroni bars, places to eat and stay at the Giro.

The Giro d'Italia has, since its beginning, played host to great drama, and one of these is the story of Fausto Coppi, a heroic and tragic figure of bike racing's Golden Age. On January 2 every year there is a big event in Castellania, a tiny village in Italy’s Piedmont region. Cycling fans from all over come to pay homage.

Last week, RCS Sport announced the Giro d'Italia route for the 2023 edition. Of the three Grand Tours, 'La Corsa Rosa' is for the true followers of cycle racing and so who better than PEZ Grand Tour expert, Ed Hood, to give us his thoughts on the percorso.

The route of the 106th Giro d’Italia was unveiled on Monday. The 2023 Corsa Rosa will feature eight stages suitable for sprinters, three time trials that total 70.6 km, seven mountain stages, with as many uphill finishes. Riders will climb a total of 51,300m in vertical elevation and cover a distance of 3,448.6 km.

The 105th Giro d'Italia starts in Budapest on Friday and finishes three weeks later in Verona. Ed Hood takes up over the 3,410 kilometres and through the history of the Italian Grand Tour and gives us his 'protaganisti' for the win.

The Giro d'Italia has been won more than once by 22 riders, but only eight of riders have managed to win consecutive races. In the postwar period, only Coppi, Merckx and Indurain have managed. Oh, and a somewhat lesser figure-Franco Balmamion, who is the subject of a beautiful book from Rapha Editions that is as much a loving ode to cycling fandom and Italian quirkiness as it is about Balmamion.