The Giro d'Italia kicks off on Friday afternoon with the first of three stages in Albania, but riders have run into trouble reconnoitring the stages with traffic and roadworks all proving obstacles in the days leading up to the Grande Partenza.
The race will start with a hilly 160km ride from Durrës to Tirana before Saturday's 14km time trial in the capital and then another 160km stage in Vlorë. Teams have been limited in how much of the courses in Tirana they can scope out beforehand, however.
Speaking to Het Nieuwsblad, Alpecin-Deceuninck directeur sportif Gianni Meersman said his team were forced to carry out their recon by car, calling the idea of exploring Tirana on bike "extremely dangerous".
"We explored it by car," Meersman said. "On the way, we were discussing whether we should try it with riders on bikes.
"Then we saw Astana in the middle of the traffic, and it was suddenly decided we're not going to do it. That was extremely dangerous."
Soudal-QuickStep directeur sportif Davide Bramati said that the traffic in Tirana was "exactly like in Sicily" – in a negative way – while Het Nieuwsblad reported that Lidl-Trek's director cars got separated from their riders after a few corners, bringing their recon to an early end.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe didn't venture out to tackle a recon ride at all, while Wout van Aert and his Visma-Lease A Bike team did, with the Belgian calling the experience "quite hectic."
Of course, once racing gets underway, there will be no traffic to disrupt the riders. The state of the roads in places remains in question, however.
Van Aert used the word "unpredictable" to describe the state of the roads, while road workers were out in force as late as Wednesday and Thursday, laying fresh asphalt on the course.
"It's not dramatic everywhere, but it is unpredictable where the holes will appear. [It's not] meant as a criticism, but it's simply different from what we're used to," Van Aert said, before praising the asphalt on the opening stage's final climb.
"The asphalt was very good there," he added.
A report from Danish website Feltet showed that repairs and the laying of fresh asphalt was still ongoing in the days before the Giro peloton was due to hit the roads.
"We drove around the first stage [on Wednesday] and the positive thing is that they have started repairing the roads for tomorrow," came an eyewitness account from Bjarke Vodder Nielsen, a Danish cyclist living in Albania.
Nielsen reported that asphalt was being laid on the road up Gracen, the first climb of Friday's opening stage, and added that road workers were out on Thursday, too.
"Yesterday, the asphalt was peeling off in several places, and they were laying asphalt in some places. I've never seen so many asphalt workers on an Albanian road," he said.
"I'm sure they'll make it by tomorrow, but this is the last call that they've got the roads ready."
The race kicks off on Friday afternoon with a battle between sprinters and puncheurs in Tirana. Check out our Giro d'Italia stage 1 preview here. For all the details on how to tune in, head to our guide on how to watch Giro d'Italia 2025.
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