Primoz Roglic is hunting his sixth Grand Tour triumph at this year's Giro d'Italia and will have the chance to snatch the title from Tadej Pogacar with his superstar compatriot sitting out a gruelling three-week race.
Despite being one of the best road cyclists of his generation, Roglic has been in the shadow of all-conquering Pogacar ever since being beaten by his fellow Slovenian to the 2020 Tour De France in gut-wrenching fashion.
But the 35-year-old is a strong pick to claim the pink jersey for the second time as a Grand Tour specialist backed by a powerful Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team, which included 2022 winner Jai Hindley and last year's runner-up Dani MartÃnez.
"The goal is just to reach my best shape. The results will be what they will be," said Roglic of his season back in February.
"I don't know how fast all the other best guys will go, you know, but looking at myself, what I can strive for is to try to build myself into the best Primoz that there was... Inside I still feel 20."
Roglic is gunning for both the Giro and the Tour this year, with the latter still a thorn in his side after giving up the chance of a lifetime on the penultimate stage five years ago.
He looked in fine fettle when he won the Tour of Catalonia in March, pipping home favourite Juan Ayuso on the final stage in Barcelona.
- Mountain challenge -
Ayuso will be one of Roglic's key rivals on the Giro, the young Spaniard – and Pogacar's teammate at UAE – already a winner in Italy this season with success at the week-long Tirreno-Adriatico.
But the challenge awaiting both at the Giro start line in Albanian town Durres on Friday will be far harder than anything else they have experienced this season.
In total this year's Giro will feature 52 200 metres of climbing, over 10 000m more than the 2024 edition, over the 3 413 kilometres of riding towards Rome where the final stage will honour deceased Pope Francis with an unprecedented ride through the Vatican.
Riders will depart Albania, where controversial Italian-run migrant processing centres became operational in October, following a difficult third stage which starts and finishes in Vlore, before riders snake their way up mainland Italy from Lecce in the deep south.
Almost all of this year's extra 10km of climbing come in the two stages before the climax in Rome, with a punchy stage 19 testing riders with three category one climbs in the 166km between Biella and Champoluc.
The penultimate stage 20 is the scene of the highest Colle delle Finistre climb which features 8km of gravel roads, before the peloton reaches Sestiere near Italy's alpine border with France.
Heavy snowfall last month caused concern that the Colle delle Finistre climb would have to be removed from the race, but roads have been cleared and work is underway on making the climb safe for riders who will arrive there exhausted from a brutal final week.