It’s Not Just About the Tour This Week—the 2023 Giro Donne Starts Tomorrow. Here’s Who to Watch For.

The 34th edition of the 2023 Giro Donne—AKA the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile or the women’s Giro d’Italia—begins tomorrow, June 30, 2023. With just over three weeks until the Tour de France Femmes, the start list is missing a few of the stage race contenders we usually see, but that leaves room for some new faces to potentially make it to the front of the pack. And of course, there are some of the usual suspects like Annemiek Van Vleuten and Marianne Vos who can always be counted on to light up stages.

Here’s who we’re watching for the next 10 days over the course of nine stages and 928 kilometers of racing:

Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar)

Reigning Giro Donne champion Annemiek Van Vleuten really needs no introduction. She’s the heavy favorite for the win, as she’s been steadily building up over the course of the season, clearly planning to peak for le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (TDFF) and World Championships. For her, this race is likely more of a tune-up, but she has so much experience here that she’ll still be the rider to watch even if she isn’t bringing 100 percent.

Marianne Vos (Jumbo Visma)

Vos has won a ridiculous 32 stages of the Giro over the years. She’s likely in a similar boat to Van Vleuten in terms of focus on the TDFF, but at the same time, she may also be hoping for at least the points jersey in the overall at the Giro. She also thrives in races that are less mountain-focused, and this year’s Giro features plenty of climbing, but less mountain top finishes.

Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ)

UAE Team ADQ has stacked their roster with Italian racers, likely assuming that national pride will have each rider pushing harder than ever to score stage wins. The Italian rider made last year’s TDFF a lively race, and proved she has the chops to not just take stage wins and podiums, but to do well in the GC. She just placed second at Italian Nationals, and will certainly be looking to get a good result on home turf.

Lizzie Deignan (Lidl Trek)

Trek Segafredo has a new look now that they’ve swapped out Segafredo and brought on Lidl as the new title sponsor. But the roster remains the same, and now that Deignan is back in racing action after her maternity leave, and has been for several weeks, we’re expecting her to pull out all the stops at the Giro.

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx)

SD Worx is one of the teams that often has almost too many GC-worthy racers on the start line, and that can lead to a bit of confusion over who’s fighting for what. But with a trimmed down team as riders like Demi Vollering are over in France scouting the TDFF course, Wiebes may have room to go for the overall.

Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich)

DSM is another team that elected to pull some of their top riders from the field to focus on TDFF next month, but Labous is consistently up there in race standings, and often found in breakaways. (Note: Yes, dsm has changed their name this month and are now officially Team dsm-firmenich now that fragrance/chemical company firmenich merged with DSM.)

A Wildcard Stage Winner?

Almost every year at the Giro Donne, there’s a lesser-known team of Italian racers on the start line that manages to snag at least one stage win. There are a few smaller teams with fully Italian rosters in the mix this year: Top Girls Fassa Bortolo, Team Mendelspeck, Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria, GB Junior Team Piemonte Pedale Castanese, and Bepink. Watch out for them, especially in breakaways!

How to Watch the 2023 Giro Donne

In the U.S, the spot to watch is GCN+, where two hours of coverage will be shown each day.

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