After a year of honorable service, Alberto Bettiol says goodbye to the Tricolor jersey and leaves it vacant again. This year, the title will be awarded in Friuli Venezia Giulia, on a 228.8 km route from Trieste to Gorizia, which promises to be open and interesting.

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The first 165 km are almost entirely flat, starting from the splendid Piazza Unità d'Italia in Trieste and touching some of the region's most characteristic towns, from Monfalcone to Aquileia, passing through Palmanova, Butrio, Cividale del Friuli, and Cormons. With 80 km to go, the race will enter Gorizia and begin a 26.4 km circuit to be repeated 3 times that, in addition to a brief and symbolic cross into Slovenia, will have the San Floriano del Collio climb as a crucial turning point.

The climb is not impossible, measuring 3.7 km with an average gradient of 5.1% (the last kilometer being the toughest), but it will come after 200 km of racing and, with 3 passages, should create some selection. At the top of the climb, 8 km will remain to the finish line in Piazza della Vittoria in Gorizia, but by then, mounting a chase will be far from easy.

The race will be broadcast live on both Rai 2 and Discovery+ starting at 14:50.

THE FAVORITES

Friuli dreams of seeing Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) win the Tricolor jersey, especially with his first Tour de France on the horizon. The Buja Bull can digest the route's challenges, but will still need to grit his teeth and hope the race proceeds as smoothly as possible, especially since he will only have Jacopo Mosca and Simone Consonni at his disposal.

However, the Italian Championships are often a lottery, because teams have a variable number of athletes, controlling the race is complicated, and a long-range attack could be the right solution to try and take home the jersey. Among the athletes who have shown good form are Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), fresh from a time trial victory and strongly motivated, by his own admission, to also win the road race, and Filippo Baroncini (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), winner of the Tour of Belgium.

XDS Astana is intimidating with 12 effective riders, including the two outgoing Italian champions, Alberto Bettiol and Simone Velasco, ready for the Tour, as well as Appennine Tour winner Diego Ulissi and Nicola Conci. Watch out also for the Italian Professional teams, VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizan, Polti VisitMalta, and Solution Tech-Vini Fantini, who could shake things up with long-range attacks, exploiting their numerical superiority.

The outsiders who can dream are truly numerous, from Edoardo Zambanini and Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) to Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), through Giulio Pellizzari, Giovanni Aleotti, and Matteo Sobrero (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), local hero Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco AlUla) and Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal-QuickStep), all athletes hoping for a tough race.

Among those hoping for a reduced group finish could be Matteo Trentin, Alberto Dainese (Tudor) and Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana), but also Stefano Oldani (Cofidis), Luca Mozzato (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Q36.5), two-time national champion who announced a couple of days ago his retirement at the end of the season.

The list of participants is in the attached PDF