Giro d’Italia 2022 Odds, Picks, Preview & Predictions

• The 2022 Giro d’Italia begins Friday, May 6, in Budapest
• Former Giro champion Richard Carapaz is the heavy race favorite
• Below, see the 2022 Giro-d’Italia odds and best bets as the riders tackle the first Grand Tour of the year

The 2022 Giro d’Italia begins in Hungary on Friday, a place that the event has never traveled to before. Budapest was supposed to host the start of the race in 2020, but plans were changed because of the pandemic.

From Hungary the races takes a day off and resumes in Sicily. After the flight south, more or less they go from the tip of the boot to top with the finish in Verona on May 29.

As the leader of Ineos, 2019 champ Richard Carapaz is the favorite. While he is the lead rider for what has been the best team recently, Simon Yates, Joao Almeida, and Mikel Landa are dangerous GC rivals. Let’s look over the odds and debate where we can find the top betting value.

Giro d’Italia Winner Odds

Odds as of May 1, 2022 at DraftKings Sportsbook.

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What makes this year’s route unique is how short the two time trials are. There is no team time trial, and the pair of ITT’s total just 26 kilometres, the shortest distance in 60 years. While that could benefit climbers, and 51,000 metres of total elevation gain certainly suits them, there are rarely consecutive hard days in the mountains. It feels like a pretty fair route regardless of strengths and style.

The home country has produced the maglia rosa on 41 occasions, but none of the last five. The Italians do not have any of the favorites this time around. Brits went more than a century without winning the Giro, but Chris Froome won in 2018 and Tao Geoghegan Hart took the crown in 2020.

Let’s look at some of the contenders.

Richard Carapaz is the Giro d’Italia Favorite

You have to go back to the mid 70’s to find a time the same team won the Giro in three straight years. Eddy Merckx led Team Molteni to three straight victories during his Hall of Fame career. Ineos took the title with Hart two years ago, and Egan Bernal in 2021. This year Carapaz has the top overall roster on his side.

Carapaz doesn’t have the je ne sais quoi of Bernal, but reaching the podium in a Grand Tour each of the last three years including winning the Giro the last time he rode in it is pretty good.

The 28 year old from Ecuador is in good form. He finished second in his national road championship, and was the runner up at the Volta a Catalunya this year.

Giro d’Italia Contenders and a Longshot

It feels like Simon Yates has been the key rider at the Giro more than once. He dominated the event in 2018, but ran out of gas in dramatic fashion. After failing to finish in 2020, last year just as it appeared Egan Bernal was going to run away and hide, Yates made things interesting.

Yates finished third last year, and a course light on time trials with significant climbing could benefit him this go round.

Joao Almeida was a fun story in 2020. Nobody expected he could hold the lead for 15 days, and for someone that was not identified as a climber, finishing fourth was excellent. He backed it up with a sixth place performance last year.

At the age of 23, Almeida has shifted to a much stronger team, and looked good to begin the year, even excelling in the mountains.

Mikel Landa has finished in the top five at four Grand Tours, including twice at the Giro. Last year he looked very strong early on, but shortly thereafter crashed out.

Landa is 32 years old and seems to always be in the mix. He finished third in March’s Tirreno–Adriatico.

If you are looking for a price option, consider EF Education-EasyPost teammates Hugh Carthy or Esteban Chaves. Carthy has had some memorable mountain stages in the Giro, while Chaves finished second in 2016.

Giro d’Italia Best Bet

Almeida has the biggest upside. He is young, improving, and now is on a team that can really support him. While a small emphasis on time trials doesn’t help Almeida, he has a very bright future and this year’s Giro feels like it is there for the taking.