Back for another edition, the Giro Valle d’Aosta can lay claim to the title of “hardest stage race in cycling”, regardless of level. The race takes on all manor of horrible climbs, with this year’s racing featuring steep walls, long climb, trips above 2000m… it has it all and is a true test of who the top climbers can be.
Given its slot in between the U23 Giro and the Worlds/l’Avenir combo, as well as clashing with the Tour de France, not a lot if often made of this race, but it is worth following, with a daily livestream being run by the race organiser too.
Whilst the winners from 2012-2016 have had mixed results as a pro, with Colombia’s 2014 winner Bernardo Suaza never making it past cycling’s second tier, and the likes of Davide Villella, Killian Frankiny and Rob Power all enjoying relative success as pros before retiring in the last years. 2012 winner Fabio Aru would go on to win a Vuelta, stages in all three Grand Tours and lead all three Grand Tours before he called it a career halfway through 2021.
Vadim Pronskiy has been a solid pro for 3.5 years, whilst Mauri Vansevenant has two pro wins. Pavel Sivakov won the race as part of his magical final season as a U23 in 2017, where he won here, the U23 Giro and Ronde de l’Isard, plus a stage and KOM jersey at l’Avenir. He has went on to win the Tour of Poland at WT level, as well as the Tours of Burgos and the Alps.
FDJ Conti are the back-to-back defending champs, winning with both Reuben Thompson and Lenny Martinez, with the latter already winning the Mont Ventoux Challenge. They dominated the race last year, with Martinez leading home Thompson for a 1-2 overall, with Thompson winning the queen stage and a win in the tricolore too for Lorenzo Germani. The other 3 stages went to 3 guys who are now current WorldTour pros: Mason Hollyman, Alex Baudin and Oscar Onley.
THE PARCOURS
Stage 1: Arvier – Arvier (81km)
For this race, this is essentially as easy a stage as you will ever get. Stage one often goes this way, but the organisers have really removed most of the climbing, bar a 3km, 7% climb that tops out with over 17.5km still to go. The course is undulating over most of the day, and there is another 1.8km rise at under 5% at just 1500m left, so that could be a final launch pad.
Given how hard this race is, I expect this stage to be extremely aggressive, given the parcours is, for one, really short, and secondly, is probably the only stage most of the riders on this startlist can win from, so a highly coveted stage win will be up for grabs. As for the GC, most of the guys should stick together, with the old adage of you can’t win the race today, but you can lose it, being extremely relevant
Stage 2: Courmayeur – Val Veny (Pre de Pascal) (125km)
After yesterday’s soft launch for the race, its full gas today, with a truly horrific summit finish awaiting the riders. We start with about 36km of downhill, before the riders get an uncategorised 3.3km rise at 5.7% to break up the rhythm. The first categorised climb of the day is the 17km long Verrogne climb, averaging a little over 5%. But that grade doesn’t tell the whole truth, as there is a descent midway up the climb. The first 7.4km averages nearly 8%.
After a long descent followed by the intermediate sprint in Avise at 85km, we get another really hard climb: Les Places is just under 9km at 6.6%, but there is a middle part of the climb averaging over 9% for about 4.5km. After the descent, the riders do another uncategorised climb of 3.8km at 5.4%, summiting at 10km to go.
Then the hell truly begins, with the last 5.9km to the line averaging a whopping 10.8%, and from 4km to 3km to go, the gradient averages 16.5%. That’s a leg breaker that will go some way to deciding this race.
Stage 3: St Vincent – Bionaz (Place Moulin) (134.5km)
After yesterday’s summit was short but extremely steep, today’s stage is the polar opposite, long but a lot more of a shallow gradient.
After 28km, the riders tackle Perloz, short at 3.8km but averaging over 8%, before two intermediate sprints are split by the Paye climb at 75.5km raced, again just 3.4km but averaging 7.3%.
Allien is the next climb, summiting at 110km raced, and it is 9.2km at 5.8%, but the final 3.2km are steeper, at over 7%. After the descent, the riders immediately go up the final climb, which is quite an uneven grade. Officially 16.1km at 5.5%, there is a prolonged section early on of 6.5km at 7.2%, and the final 3.3km averages 7.5%. Another tough test, but a completely different stage to the previous day.
Stage 4: Verrayes – Fenis (Clavalite) (164.5km)
Although I would rate stage two’s summit finish as harder, this is the most brutal stage at the race, at almost 4600m of climbing.
Things start quite early, with the 6.5km at 8.6% Fabiole after 42.5km, and don’t really get any easier with Col d’Arlaz (8.8km at 7.4%) and Verrayes (6.6km at 7.8%) in the first 109km. Two horrific climbs end the stage though…
Champremier is 9.3km at 9.1% and tops out at 19km to go, and the climb to the line is 9% for 10.7km. The pace will be on all stage, and any of these climbs could break fragile legs. After today, I think the GC winner might just be known…
Stage 5: Valtournenche – Cervinia (110km)
This stage is far from easy, but it is really suited to a break going clear, and the GC action can be minimal, with the potential for headwind on the final climb, which has wide roads all the way to the ski station at 200m.
After a downhill start, there is a short climb early on (3.7km at 8.4%), but things get started with the climb to Champlong at 77.5km raced (15.4km at 6.9%), where it gets harder as the climb goes on, the final 7.4km averaging 7.3%. There is a brief descent from the KOM point before another 2km uphill at 8.4%. A long descent follows before the race’s final climb to Cervinia. Officially 16.2km at 5.8%, there is a flatter section at the top, which means whilst this climb is often used in both this race and the Giro d’Italia, it’s never too decisive.
THE FAVOURITES
Winner Candidates: N/A
Podium Contenders: Emiel Verstrynge (Alpecin-Deceuninck Devo), Finlay Pickering (Trinity), Alexy Faure Prost (Circus-ReUz-Technord)
Outsiders: Ollie Rees (Trinity), Sebastian Putz (Austria), Charlie Paige & Louis Rouland (Bourg-en-Bresse Ain)
Jokers: Brieuc Rolland (FDJ Conti), Pavel Novak (Colpack-Ballan), Kieran Haug (USA)
For the first time ever in a race preview, I am not awarding anyone as a winner candiate. As a lot of the established U23 climbers have chosen to skip the race, or their teams have in the case of Jumbo-Visma and Lotto-Dstny, the climbing field is comprised of mostly young guys and some riders who have question marks surrounding their form right now.
Emiel Verstrynge, Alexy Faure Prost and Finlay Pickering top the podium contenders category, all for quite different reasons. Emiel was 11th here last season has the CX rider had a very good climbing campaign, rounding the year off with the GC at Giro della Friuli. He hasn’t quite had the same GC success so far in 2023, but he did race very well in the Tour of Upper Austria just about 6 weeks ago. I’m expecting him to try and improve on his 11th place, even if his form is a bit unknown.
Pickering was actually 11th and 4th in the first two stages of this race last year, before the then-FDJ Conti man settled into his role as a helper for Martinez and Thompson. He would end the year with a stage win atop La Planche des Belles Filles and getting the GC at Tour Alsace before moving across to Trinity. He’s had a quiet start to the year, but has built his form well, with 25th overall at Tour of the Alps and then 12th plus the KOM jersey at Alpes Isere Tour. We know he is a special climber on his day, and this is a great chance for him to go for the GC once more.
Faure Prost is a young rider, only a first-year U23, but his 2nd place atop the Stelvio and 5th on GC at the Giro Next Gen showcase his incredible climbing talent, especially at altitude. He faded a little as that race went on, and there will be questions as to his his form is just a month after that race. Also, being on the ball for 4 days in the big mountains is a tough ask for one so young and inexperienced. But he has earned the right to be on the upper echelons of this list.
To be honest, I think you can stick the outsiders and jokers together, as I think they are all riders who could do a good job in this race overall. The most logical place to start is with Ollie Rees, who had a great season last year, including 4th on Ronde de l’Isard GC and 10th overall at this race. He started well in 2023 with 11th overall at the Volta ao Alentejo, before health problems struck the final year U23. He has been on a slow rebuild back to form, and he raced very well in the service of others at Course de la Paix, before doing really well in a very hard British national champs. I’m not sure if he is ready to go for the GC in such a hard race, but he has the quality to do so if he has the legs. I really hope he can get a stage win, that would do so much for his final U23 months.
Next to Rees, I have went for Brieuc Rolland. He will lead FDJ here, a team that is vastly different to the dominant teams we have seen over the last two years at this race. After moving 8 riders on to their pro team, most of the squad are first year U23s, with Rolland one of the more experienced names, yet still just a 19-year-old second-year rider. He raced to 13th at the U23 Giro on GC, and while the course is a lot harder here, I think in this field, he can do better than 13th. He’s another guy I’d like to see do well and get a stage win, building on his strong 6th on GC at the hard Alpes Isere Tour race.
Bourg-en-Bresse Ain duo Charlie Paige and Louis Rouland are entering this race in really good shape. Paige, a Brit, has been targetting this race after coming 18th last year, and looks on for an even better result after taking 7th in Alpes Isere Tour and then 4th at the domestic Tour du Beaujolais. He’s a very good climber, and it is fair to expect a good deal from him here in his last crack at this race before he ages out.
After coming 12th in 2021, things didn’t quite go to plan for Louis Rouland last year. But after he improved his 8th place in last year’s Course de la Paix to 6th this year whilst working for eventual winner Antoine Huby (as well as scoring 5th overall at Tour de la Mirabelle), Rouland is entering this race in menacing form. He and Paige will form a really strong duo for the French DN11 team, as they look to take on the bigger UCI teams and get into the top ten at the very least. I’m convinced these two have the ability to do that and more.
Next, we come to the outsiders, where we have a lot of really inexperienced guys. Austria have two really interesting names in their squad, even with Marco Schrettl and Alex Hajek not being here. Sebastian Putz, former U23 RR champion of Austria, is a rider I know has some interest from pro teams for 2025, and he has started to show really well as a stage racer this season, with 4th overall at Carpathian Race and 14th at the Tour of Upper Austria. This will be a nice race for him to experience the high mountains more, while racing with no pressure.
Paul Verbnjak is his teammate, a skimountaineer who was 18th at the recent elite Austrian nationals, on what was a very hard day out. He is a guy who reportedly has great numbers, but this is one of his first ever races, his first ever stage race, so we have no idea at all how he will respond to racing in a peloton over high mountains for 5 straight days. But, with such a hard parcours, if he has form, there is not going to be so many guys around him, which will help with any nerves. Regardless of how Paul does, I had to highlight him as a name we should all be watching in this race.
Pavel Novak, the Czech racing on Italian team Colpack-Ballan, has long been touted as a climbing talent, but he is still very young, only 18. He hasn’t yet raced well on GC at a UCI race, but he has done well on the domestic level in Italy, while he was a terrific 5th on the queen stage of the Course de la Paix on home roads, as well as being one of the biggest U23 stage races. He will have some time to grow to this category, but this is a great chance to, like the other guys, ride the big mountains without as much stress as you get at the Giro Next Gen or l’Avenir, and maybe he can even ride for the GC.
I will also highlight the USA’s 20-year-old Kieran Haug, who was 6th on GC at the Tour of the Gila, with a lot of the race occurring at over 2000m. He’s still relatively inexperienced in Europe, and was actually disqualified from this race last year, but a guy that good at altitude could be a potential GC or stage hunting threat this time around.
Some other names not yet confirmed to be starting but could be: Hugo and Unai Aznar (Equipo Finisher), Antonio Morgado, Goncalo Tavares, Emil Herzog and Maxence Place (Hagens Berman Axeon), Roman Ermakov and Davide De Cassan (CT Friuli) and Isaac del Toro (AR Monex).
U23 Cycling Zone 