agonist/antigonist

 It's time for the second grand tour of the women's calendar. Placed a few weeks before the Paris Olympics, the startlist is lacking a bit in firepower, but the route most certainly is not. After languishing for a few under the previous organizers, the first year under the purview of RCS sees a welcome return to the challenging courses of years past. A decade ago, the Giro was the premier race stage race on the women's calendar; with the fumbling of television coverage by the previous organizers in the last few years and the concurrent re-introduction of the Tour de France Femmes, that's no longer the case. But, it is likely the hardest stage race on this year's calendar. Let's take a look at the key stages: Race map from procyclingstats.com   Eight stages in total, most of them featuring the Apennines. A short-ish ITT kicks things off. Reusser has scratched, so we'll probably see Kopecky take the leader's jersey here. The third stage features the firs