It was Italian Vincenzo Nibali who was crowned Giro d'Italia champion last year, but who will it be in 2014 and what stages represent the key battlegrounds?
In just three days time some of the best riders in the world will commence battle in the first Grand Tour of the year, the Giro d'Italia.
This time out it’s a race holding very special interest for us Irish. Not only is it getting underway with three stages spanning north and south of the island, but we have three real contenders in the field.
Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp), Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Philip Deignan (Team Sky) are all heading into battle with realistic ambitions of winning big.
Martin has kept a lid on his form until recent weeks and having already won a mountain stage in the Vuelta and in the Tour de France he is firmly in the hunt to complete his Grand Tour set over the coming three weeks.
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Few would bet against him doing that and not many would raise an eyebrow if he were to finish on the final podium. Indeed, he's many people's slightly outside bet to win the race outright if everything went his way.
Roche has just completed the Tour de Romandie and while he perhaps underperformed there we feel he is set for a big Giro ride.
He wore the leader's jersey - and ever other classification leader's jersey - in the Vuelta last year where he also picked up a stage win and finished 5th overall.
He prepared for that race with an extended training camp, and in recent weeks has spent a prolonged period at altitude getting ready for the Giro, where he will enjoy protected rider status.
Like cousin Martin, a stage win and very high overall placing is well within his grasp.
The third Irish man in the field is Letterkenny's Deignan; a winner of a Vuelta stage back in 2009 when he also finished 9th overall.
His squad has been hit with illness and injury meaning Team Sky has no clear general classification contender going into this race.
That should free Deignan up to target his only goal of this race; to win a stage.
Having broken his collarbone earlier in the season, he plans to lose time deliberately early in the race and to wait and wait until the final leg breaking week of the three-week event.
He will then try and get into as many moves as he can and hope one sticks on a day when his legs are good.
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He returned to form with gusto last year and before his crash this year had ridden very well in Australia and also in Italy on his return in recent weeks.
Can this be a Grand Tour starting in Ireland where each of the Irishmen wins a stage? We really think it can.
We'd put money on at least two of the three taking stage wins and on both Roche and Martin taking top 10s overall. The question is how far into the top 10 might they go?
Have a look at the extended newsy preview below and let's get this show on the road!
News preview of Giro d'Italia 2014
Here's a nice little promo clip produce by the race organisers
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