Giro d'Italia 2023 Odds: Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic primed for epic battle

The cycling season explodes into action on Saturday when the 106th Giro d’Italia takes centre stage in Italy.

The first Grand Tour of 2023 promises to be a belter as World Champion Remco Evenepoel and three-time Vuelta a España winner Primoz Roglic prepare to battle it out across a lung-busting 3489.2kms spanning 21 stages.

As prestigious as it is unpredictable, lashings of drama and excitement await us over the course of the next three weeks in what promises to be a riveting race for the Maglia Rosa.

Here at BettingOdds, we’ve put the key contenders under the microscope to see who is best-placed to sport the iconic pink jersey come Sunday 28th May.

The General Classification betting indicates a two-rider race for glory between Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic, and we are all for it. What an epic duel this promises to be from Pescara through to Rome.

With three Time Trials on the schedule, Remco Evenepoel ventures to Italy as the bookmakers' favourite to win the Giro d'Italia at a best-priced even-money with William Hill.

Fresh from his triumphs in the UAE Tour and the Liege–Bastogne–Liege, the brilliant Belgian is bidding to win back-to-back Grand Tours and looks well placed to do just that. 

Evenepoel ended Roglic's three-year dominance at the 2022 Vuelta a España when he became the first of his countrymen since 1978 to win a Grand Tour.

Speaking of Primoz Roglic, he has quite the Grand Tour resume.

We’re talking about those aforementioned hat-trick of Vuelta a España triumphs, while he has podium finishes in the Tour de France (2nd) and the Giro d'Italia (3rd); the latter was achieved in his second and most recent appearance at the Giro in 2019.

The Slovenian now returns to Italy in pursuit of glory, with BoyleSports handing him odds of 9/4 to win the Maglia Rosa.

Roglic is boosted by his success at the Volta a Catalunya in March, where he fended off competition from rival Evenepoel to win by six seconds.

The bookies' may be expecting a duel between Remco Evenepoel and Primroz Roglic, but the brutal Giro is famed for throwing up the unexpected, so you'd be a fool to completely rule out any of the chasing pack, especially given that there are a couple of Grand Tour winners in the mix.

At 14/1 (BoyleSports) you'll find Geraint Thomas. In truth, the Welshman has not had too much luck at the Giro, having suffered an injury in 2017 and then fractured his hip in 2020 after he rode over a stray drinks bottle.

Since winning the 2018 Tour de France, Thomas has picked up two more podium finishes at Le Tour including 3rd last year. His resilience and experience will be key tools throughout the following three weeks, making him a tempting bet at 7/1 (UniBet) to secure a top-3 finish; a big price given he's as short as 13/8 elsewhere.

His fellow Brit and Ineos Grenadiers teammate Tao Geoghegan Hart is also worth pondering at 16/1 in the GC.

After all, the 28-year-old did win the Giro on his last appearance in 2020 and heads to 2023's opening Grand Tour on the back of his victory at the Tour of the Alps.

Elsewhere, the talented Joao Almeida (16/1) has three top-6 Grand Tour finishes on the board and has previously sported the Maglia Rosa, then there's Aleksandr Vlasov who is well worth monitoring as a 22/1 outsider. He finished 5th at last year's Tour de France and 4th at the 2021 Giro.

When it comes to the King of the Mountains, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic both feature at 8/1.

They are joined by French hero Thibaut Pinot - who will retire at the end of the season - at a best-priced 8/1, although he's the 4/1 favourite with other outlets.

Mads Pedersen is the odds-on frontrunner in the Points Classification market, followed by Fernando Gaviria and Michael Matthews at 5/1.

Mark Cavendish returns for his seventh Giro aiming for his 17th stage win here, which is priced at 11/4 with UniBet.

Browse both of the markets mentioned above, plus the Young Rider Classification, Top-3, and Top-10 in the odds comparison grids below.