May 3 update: The Giro d'Italia has started outside of the Italy only seven times in its 101 year history: Monte Carlo (Principality of Monaco, 1966), Verviers (Belgium, 1973), Vatican City (1974), Athens (1996), Nice (France, 1998), Groningen (Holland, 2002), and Seraing (Belgium, 2006). This year, the Giro starts from the Netherlands, which have been very active in seeking Grand Tour starts recently with the Vuelta a España start in Assen last September and the upcoming Tour de France starting from Rotterdam.
Stage 1 is a 8.4 km time-trial in downtown Amsterdam () starting
Marco Pinotti won the 4.7 km prologue at last week's Tour de Romandie
from the Museumplein and finishing at Stadionplein. Needless to say, it will be a very flat route through the streets of one of Europe's most popular tourist destinations.
Riders to watch for include rising time-trial stars Paul Voss of Milram and Richie Porte of Saxo Bank, winners of time trials earlier this year. HTC-Columbia will bring last week's Tour de Romandie prologue winner Marco Pinotti and the 2009 Tour de Romandie prologue winner, Frantisek Rabon. Of course, Sky's Bradley Wiggins is overdue for a TT win this year and should be the prohibitive favorite. Pinotti said, "on paper, stage one is a typical city-centre course. This is a bit short for me but perfect for Wiggins, but that was before he won the shorter 4.7 km prologue at Romandie last week. Team Garmin-Transitions hasn't announced their final nine riders as of May 3rd, but there will likely to be two potential (including David Millar winner of the 7.7k TT at Critérium International) Stage 1 winners in their line-up. And lastly, Alexandre Vinokourov had a convincing win at the Giro del Trentino prologue several weeks ago which he parlayed into an overall win. The Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner clearly has great form right now.