The white smoke may have finally appeared above the Vatican in Rome, but Italy's great bike race will see a miasma of pink dance across the Eternal City when the race concludes there in three weeks' time.

While the new Pope has been elected, the chosen one to wear pink as winner of the Giro d'Italia is as unclear as last year's win by Tadej Pogacar was predictable – the living legend deciding a 10-minute winning margin was enough not to bother defending his title.

But if a race doesn't need a top star, it's the Giro: sun, sea, sand (or white chalk), snow and often torrents of rain greet the peloton year in year out in what is the sport's most unpredictable Grand Tour.

And this year the conclave which makes up cycling's peloton may even reveal a new star. Maybe, even, a British one.

Before any of the top British riders dream of Rome on 1 June, they have to hit completely unknown roads as the race begins for the first time in Albania on Friday.

Riders take on two hilly stages and a time trial there before hopping across the Adriatic sea to Italy for three days of racing to Naples on the flat as sprinters such as Olav Kooij, Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen begin the battle for the cyclamen points jersey in the south of the country.

But once the riders head up to Tagliacozzo for the first gruelling climbing stage in the Apennies mountain range that forms the central backbone of Italy, Britain's finest could hit centre stage.

At 25 Tom Pidcock is in his prime and in the hotseat as leader of his new Q36.5 team, for which he has already won the Saudi Tour this year and come close to winning some of the sport's most prestigious one-day races, including Strade Bianche in Tuscany.

Refreshed and revitalised after a controversial departure from Ineos Grenadiers, one of cycling's most expansive – and expensive - talents finally has a chance to prove what he has always threatened to do since breaking through in 2021: "To show I can win a Grand Tour."

"This is my first Giro d'Italia and I am excited," said Pidcock, who won on the iconic Alpe d'Huez climb during the Tour de France in 2022. "We have a responsibility to show we are worthy of that opportunity. I know the legs will be there. We are going to plan well and pick our moments."

But Pidcock is not the only one with a new challenge on the mind this year. Ever-present twins in the Italian Alps and Dolomites over the years, Adam and Simon Yates have never really fully been in competition to win the pink jersey.

But now the planets have aligned for what could be a final tilt at winning the race for the now 32-year-olds.

Both great climbing talents, Adam rides for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, often as a super-domestique for Pogacar's attempts to win the Tour de France, but here he is unleashed. Simon does the same job for Pogacar's main rival Jonas Vingegaard in France for Visma Lease a Bike, but he too has a chance to make history here, alone.

And as the more decorated of the two, with 10 Grand Tour stage victories and the 2018 Vuelta a Espana's red jersey on his palmares, does he think he has the edge?

"It's exciting to play a similar role to what my brother would do. Me and my brother are always very competitive in races," Simon said earlier this season. "But we've not raced against each other as much as you would think.

"That's going to change. We'll have to see who comes out on top."

Given there are now a record 34 British riders in this year's top level World Tour, the potential for success could be greater than the golden era of Team Sky and the presence of the legendary Mark Cavendish.

But making your mark at a young age is never easy at the top level.

Max Poole could star for Team Picnic-PostNL, and this year sees Ethan Hayter try to fulfil his huge potential with Soudal-Quick Step after his own frustrating time with Ineos, who themselves have a their own weapon in the colossally fast time trialist and cool-headed Josh Tarling.

There are five previous winners in the peloton who could extinguish British hopes. But none sit above the Giro's mysterious ways.

Ineos' Colombian champion Egan Bernal (2021) is still rebuilding after life-threatening injuries, and EF Education-Easy Post's Richard Carapaz (2019) has struggled late on in Grand Tours when the Ecuadorian's peers have pushed on.

Slovenia's Primoz Roglic (2023) has the most Grand Tour wins in the field having also won four Vueltas, but at 35 is he at the same level? Plus he has a younger and possibly hungrier team-mate in Australia's Jai Hindley, who still has plenty to prove since he won in 2022.

Could we see a first British winner since Tao Geoghegan Hart in 2020? Looking at the origins of the competitors the Giro has long since ceased to be a purely Italian affair.

But of the 184 riders set to the start this race, only two are American, so it looks like the papacy will have to do for them.