It’s that time of year. Already. The spring Classics have finished and the first of the Grand Tours is nearly upon us.

The Giro d’Italia begins on Saturday in the Danish town of Herning, the first edition from the corsa rosa’s new director, Michele Acquarone. The route is tamer than those staged in recent years by his predecessor, Angelo Zomegnan, whose offerings were viewed by some, Mario Cipollini among them, as excessive.

The route aside (and we’ll be looking in depth at some of the key stages ahead of this year’s race) the Giro has something to live up to after a superb start to the season.

GreenEDGE set out their stall in a feisty Tour Down Under, and Simon Gerrans saw his stock raised further with his first ‘Monument’ victory at Milan-San Remo after a pell mell descent of the Poggio in the company of nerveless descenders, Fabian Cancellara and Vincenzo Nibali.

The cobbled Classics were equally enthralling.

The emergence of Tom Boonen as a dominant champion did not diminish the excitement. Conversely, his decision to go it alone and win at Roubaix was every bit as enthralling as his sprint victory at the expense of Pippo Pozzato and Alessandro Ballan at the Tour of Flanders.

The Ardennes Classics didn’t disapoint. Jean Gadret and Oscar Freire turned in inspiring performances at the Amstel Gold Race before Enrico Gasparotto’s lung-bursting final effort, while Joaquin Rodriguez, the hardest working man in cycling, got no less than he deserved by winning La Fleche Wallonne. Vincenzo Nibali’s courageous escape and heartbreaking defeat, not to mention Maxime Iglinskiy’s remorseless, and ultimately victorious pursuit of the Italian, lit up Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Phillipe Gilbert’s gradual return to form across the three Ardennes races provided an interesting subtext.

So how can the Giro live up to such a start? Evans, Wiggins, and Andy Schleck, are all targeting the Tour and last year’s champion, Alberto Contador, will be absent for entirely different reasons. Leipheimer is injured; Martin freshly recovered.

But this correspondent is expecting more of the same in a season that has seen the early season stage races provide their fare share of excitement. Cavendish and Nibali were among the stars who shone at Tirreno-Adriatico; Wiggins was imprerious at Paris-Nice, and Rodriguez and Sanchez took the Tour of the Basque Country to the wire.

Another race decided on the final day, after consecutive victories by another Sanchez (Luis Leon this time), the Tour of Romandie, produced the very best of Bradley Wiggins, who showed again his willingness to go the limit.

This year’s Giro certainly has a lot to live up to. Will it do so? Time will tell. A cast of Cavendish, Thomas, Basso, Scarponi, Rodriguez, and Frank Schleck shows there is no shortage of top drawer talent on the start list.

Here’s hoping for three weeks to match the excitement of the last four months.