The Grand Tour landscape for 2018 continues to develop with the unveiling of next year’s Giro d’Italia route on Wednesday evening. The 3,546.2-kilometre, three-week event starts in Israel and takes in just 44.2km of time trialling and a total of eight summit finishes. 

Perhaps the biggest news of the evening was the confirmation that Chris Froome would make a return after an eight-year absence, to attempt the fabled Giro-Tour double. 

In the latest edition of the Cyclingnews podcast Daniel Benson and Sadhbh O’Shea, joined by Procycling editor Ed Pickering, take a closer look at the route, ask if Froome can achieve where others have failed in the last 20 years and discuss the political challenges faced by the organisers by bringing the race to Israel. 

We also hear from this year’s champion Tom Dumoulin and Cyclingnews’ European editor Stephen Farrand, who was at the route announcement, makes a guest appearance to give us his thoughts on the route.