Giro d'Italia

As always with a Grand Tour, it feels like it has been going on forever, it is barely possibly to remember a time before we were all watching racing in Italy.

The obvious ones would have been "Hirt locker" or "in a world of Hirt", so "Hirtland" is quite nice. A Google tells me that the national bird of the South American nation is actually the Andean condor, so this is a little nonsensical. The Czech rider's name is a dream for headline writers, with any number of "hurt" or "heart" words available to you. I really think this is a great pun, with the stage finish (Cogne) being built into Ciccone's name. It was the Italian's third Giro victory, and one of his most impressive, as he built on the fantastic race his Trek team had already been having. Stage seven was the first appearance of Koen Bouwman (Jumbo-Visma), a man who we would get very used to over the three weeks, as he ended up winning the mountains classification. It also has a fantastic subject line, which is usually a laboured but interesting pun on the stage winner, or the events of the day. Stage four would prove decisive in the makeup of this Giro, as Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) climbed to victory on Mount Etna, but was trailed by Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo), who would climb into the pink jersey. Another pretty staid headline, but the King of Napoli makes sense, a monarchy that actually existed from 1282 to 1816. The monarchy references continue with "abdicate", which is on theme I guess. It tells the story of the day, gives you some vital statistics, the quotes from the stage winner and the race leader, along with a preview of the next day. What is royal about Yates? Maybe the castle the time trial finished near used to be home to Magyar kings?