It's the Giro It's the Giro It's the Giro! In Preview, Part Due: the Contenders!

 Yes, the team presentation's been held, the inexplicable yet compelling modern dance routines are still digesting, we love Bauke Mollema's railed against the stupidity of starting in Hungary and the ill-planned travel slogs on purported rest days, Mikel Landa hasn't--nope, not gonna curse 'im--and it's time to get down to business!  Rogla's out.  Pogacar's out.  And of course, Bernal is still recovering, rather miraculously at that.  So who are our GC contenders, and what are their likely chances of success?  Let's get to it!

Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Merida): shut up haters.  The last few months we've seen what we frankly haven't seen for ages, which is Happy Mikel, as opposed to the let's be honest our usual Damn Near Funereal Mikel, and I'm gonna run with it.  He's won stages.  He's podiumed.  He's a fluid, beautiful climber when the legs feel right.  And this year's course, with its merciful lack of time trial kilometers (the Carrot's nemesis), is just *made* for him.  Add to that his heck of a team, including the brilliant also-Carrot Pello Bilbao, and if Pello keeps his job in mind and doesn't !@#$ Mikel over--I love you Pello, but you hear me !@#dammit?!--and the rest of him surround him like scrawny but effective pillows and keep some nimrod from knocking him over,  it can be gold.  I can feel it.  Landismo, beeyotches!

Richard Carapaz (Ineos): first, it's only fair to say that I'll be pissed atCarapaz til the end of time for backstabbing Mikel Landa at Movistar.  That said, he's a very capable wee thing, has the ever-annoying Ineos around him, and possesses just the sort of ruthlessness that gets you on or near the top of the podium.  Fine, take the maglia rosa for the first couple mountain stages--after that, prepare to give it up to your superior!

Romain Bardet (DSM): look, we all love him.  Especially after he so concernedly barged down a ditch to make sure Julian Alaphilippe was okay.  But just--back off.  Give the guy some space. We all know how the pressure on the next Great French Grand Tour Hope always goes.  A stage win and a Top Five will do nicely, thank you! 

Alejandro Valverde and Ivan Sosa (Movistar): Okay, technically now Movistar's dropped its disastrous multi-leader eating-their-own-young strategy of the past and at least dropped down from a trident to a bident.  And Alejandro Valverde, consistent with the spirit that's made him so well-liked in the peloton despite a truly, um, astounding palmares and longevity, has openly blessed young Ivan Sosa as team leader.  But seriously, Bala bags his stage win and secures a high spot on GC with no end in sight, and he's not gonna accidentally lose his earpiece and drop Sosa like a UCI pee sample?  Please!  That said, because I have no soul, I can't help but darn near root for him.  Anyhoo, whatever he says now, there's always 2023! And 2024. And...

Nibali and Superman Lopez (Astana): okay, so Nibs is getting a little long in the tooth for Grand Tour purposes, even though he's hardly the oldest, but realistically, he's going for the Etna and/or Messina stages here.  So is Lopez, after his catastrophic drop-out Movistar snit at the 2021 Vuelta, happy enough with Astana or at least appropriately terrified enough of Alexandre Vinokourov to hold it together to the line?  Frankly, without Izagirres to help him, I'm a bit skeptical.  But on form, he sure is fun to watch!

Simon Yates (Bike Exchange): yes, he podiumed last year, and he's the presumed favorite.   And whoa moly, did he just *kill* the field at the Vuelta a Asturias. But I don't know--he's got an almost Valverdian capacity for single-stage meltdowns that always seem to kill his chances.  Better to take this day-by-day I think!

Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo): you know his palmares.  And it's delightful to see him happy on the bike again after experiencing such severe burn-out and rightly taking the time to see if he wanted to come back at all.  He sure seemed upbeat at the team presentation yesterday, right?  Still, I hold my conviction that this guy was never built for the high passes of the Giro in the first place, and apparently there is some pressure over his future at Jumbo dependent on his performance here, if only pressure on his upcoming paychecks.  Let's get Dumo back to his time trialing roots and just enjoy anything else as a bonus, shall we?

Joao Almeida (UAE): he's still very young, after all, although in today's jailbait-genius peloton, that's not perhaps a barrier.  And his 2021 Giro wasn't his best.  But he is on fire this season.  I guess you can podium, kid--as long as you're gracious to the guy on the top step ahead of you!      

 All right, them's mine--but of course there's only really one.  Aupa Mikeeeeeeeeeeeeeel!