How boring the Giro with Pogacar, how boring the Tour with Pogacar, how boring the classics with Pogacar: thank goodness, this time Pogacar has gotten out of the way and we can finally have fun. Back to the dream Giro, balanced and fought, open to any solution, maybe decided on the edge of seconds, even better on bonus seconds, even better in the last kilometer of the last stage (and before, everyone waiting for the third week, when finally it can be said useless to expect great attacks, now the energies are what they are).

Clearly getting rid of Pogacar was not easy: he, but also Vingegaard and Evenepoel, all three have lined up outside the pink door, they have pressured the organizers in every way, they have begged on their knees to come. But this time the Cairo-men have proven immovable: enough boredom, the goal is to rebuild a great Giro, getting these phenomena who kill the spectacle out of the way. And enough with the false rumors that they would be the phenomena staying away: everyone knows Cairo, if needed he would have had no price issues, would have told Pogacar and the other two write your own figure and we'll meet at the Giro, but clearly that was not the strategy, this time that trio would not have entered Italy even if they had paid out of their own pocket.

So enough talk, watch the menu (we've already played Landa, as if we could splurge on names). Roglic against Ayuso, one going up towards 36 against one going down towards 23, then the longed-for resurrections of the Lazarus of this era, Bernal and Carapaz, and then again the Italian dream tied to Ciccone and Tiberi, who knows if without suffocating phenomena in the way the first of the seconds might be ours. Overall judgment: it can't be a beautiful Giro, if the head of the circus lends me his surname I would call it a Nice Giro.

Let's say it seriously: underneath, there's a creeping feeling that world cycling is something else, is somewhere else, while here we're turning in the periphery, in the suburbs, where another sport is done. But anyway: it's the Giro d'Italia. We'll follow it, we'll love it, we'll enjoy it. Always, regardless, by definition. Who loves the Giro, loves it inevitably, with eyes closed.

Of course, love is blind, but it's especially those who truly love the Giro who cannot help but see. Or hide the truth. Or tell themselves a fake one. It cannot be the flood of marketing superlatives covering reality like a fig leaf. As they would say at Civil Protection, it's a red alert level. As years pass, increasingly worrying. The great champions and great teams, but ultimately also the mid-range ones, no longer want to come here. They come by force, by regulation, by official duty. That's how it is. But this can no longer be accepted. The Giro is the Giro, a national heritage, we must choose: we can dance on the Titanic, pretending not to have water at our ankles, or we can try to plug the leak, before it's too late.

Among all the ideas that have come up recently, more than calendar modifications, the most effective to me seems working with the UCI to introduce a rule of two Grand Tours for the first twenty (or ten) in the world rankings, obviously not always the same two. Since they don't come out of love, we must make them come by force. By rotation, we'll always have some serious names.

We must know this, awareness prevents easy illusions: it's not a simple battle. Institutional powers are increasingly less public and more private, concentrated in the hands (and coffers) of the French at Aso. Certainly we cannot count on their collaboration: they have no interest in reviving the Giro, to be honest, they are the first to want it increasingly downgraded, emptied, impoverished. It's a tried and tested technique: when it reaches the limit, they'll take it away with a plate of beans. After, only after, we'll eventually talk about relaunching.

Extremely complicated situation. But the worst thing is to cheer for the Giro and pretend nothing is wrong. The sooner we tell ourselves the truth, the sooner we'll get to work. In the meantime, let's enjoy the 2025 show. Those who have accepted to race it have no fault and deserve all the passion. And anyway: beautiful Giro or Nice Giro, it's always May's Christmas.