The 90th Giro d'Italia sets off from Garibaldi's island Caprera on Saturday, looking to the spirit of the 19th-century revolutionary hero to rekindle the flame of a sport brought low by doping scandals.
After a team time trial on the lush islet north of Sardinia, the race takes two stages to straddle the larger island before crossing to the mainland for its only Campania stage, the 4th, a rumble past Pompeii and up to its first uphill finish - expected to shake up standings that will have stayed roughly the same since the opening day.
Two of the race favourites, Gilberto Simoni and Danilo De Luca, have won here before and will have the first chance to pit their climbing skills against the other tipped men, Paolo 'Il Falco' Savoldelli and relative youngster Damiano Cunego.
The Giro then ambles through Lazio, Umbria and Tuscany for three days before crossing the Apennines into Emilia Romagna on the 8th day - with another nod to Garibaldi as it sweeps past Reggio's Risorgimento museum - and then snaking back on itself for the 9th stage up the north Tuscan coast.
These will be the days when top sprinter Alessandro Petacchi will be looking to punch more holes into his 19-notch belt, fighting off the likes of Australia's Robbie McEwen in a joint bid to get closer to Mario 'Lion King' Cipollini's all-time stage-win tally of 42.
The 10th stage, on May 22, will see the climbers back standing tall in their pedals in another uphill finish - a killer gradient of 9% - to the north Tuscan shrine of Nostra Signora della Guardia.
Then it's back to another sprinters' cruise across Piedmont before the 12th stage takes the race on one of its two forays into foreign territory, a back-breaking trek up to the French Alpine town of Briancon including the high point of this year's race - the so-called Cima Coppi - where the Colle dell'Agnello beetles its brows at 2,744 metres.
Leaving no time for the racers to catch their breaths, stage 13 is the only individual climbing trial in this year's Giro, up to the Shrine of Oropa above the Piedmont city of Biella.
TWO LATE KILLER STAGES.
Simoni will be without his team - reckoned this year's strongest - to help him and will be hard pushed to fend off the attacks of Savoldelli and the others.
After another chance for the stronger sprinters into Bergamo on stage 14, stage 15 on Sunday May 27 will cross three steepling peaks above Cortina d'Ampezzo before ending up in another famed ski resort, Auronzo di Cadore.
May 28 will bring a much-needed rest day ahead of the second sortie outside Italy, to Lienz in Austria - another fairly easy ride despite the mountain surroundings.
But the next day, stage 17, will deal the first of two late killer blows to the contenders' chances.
Crossing back from Lienz into Italy, the riders weave their way up through famous Dolomite mountains like San Candido before facing the mighty Zoncolan peak - a nightmare 10km climb with gradients as high as 12%.
Two much easier stages will then take the Giro to its final crunch, an individual time trial from Bardolino to Verona on day 20, Saturday June 2, where the specialists against the clock will seek to win back what they've lost in the mountains.
The next day, after covering almost 3,500km, the Giro winds up with its traditional run-in to Milan.
In a year when Italy celebrates the 200th anniversary of Garibaldi's birth, some think that 2001 and 2003 winner Simoni still has enough steel in his belly to pull off the hat-trick.
If he does, he will become the oldest Giro winner ever, just three months shy of 36.
Savoldelli, 34, will be doing his utmost to repeat his own 2002 and 2005 triumphs, while Di Luca, recent winner of the spring classic Liege-Bastogne-Liege, is another veteran at 31 aiming for his first win in the world's second most prestigious road race.
However, it is to Cunego, the 2004 winner and best young rider at Last year's Tour de France, that many are looking to put a fresher face back on the top of the podium as cycling seeks to shrug off its lingering doping taint.
With last year's winner Ivan Basso out of the picture after half-admitting he was about to give himself a blood booster ahead of the Tour, the 25-year-old Cunego could be the star cycling needs to turn over a new leaf.
It is no coincidence that this year's organisers have re-instated the white jersey of Best Young Rider for the first time since 1993.
"We're looking to the youngsters to provide the vital sap and energy this sport needs to push it into a new era," organisers said this week.
