Six summit finishes and 50000 meters of elevation gain for the first Grand Tour of next season.
Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone in Rome was the host of the 2026 Giro d’Italia route presentation, Monday afternoon. The 109th edition (8-31 May) gets underway from Bulgaria, making it for the 16th time that the Corsa Rosa starts from a foreign country. Burgas is where the first pink jersey will be awarded, while Veliko Tarnavo and Sofia are also set to welcome the peloton before an early first rest day.
Blockhaus is back next May as the scene of the first real battle between the GC contenders, but the opening week will feature also a couple of “muri” stages and opportunities for the sprinters. The sole individual time trial of the race takes place in Tuscany, where the flat 40.2km course promises to bring significant changes to the overall standings. The tough summit finish to Pila, back after 30 years, and a flat stage in Milano are the other two highlights of the week, which concludes in the capital of Lombardy.
The final part of the Giro d’Italia is also the hardest one of this edition. A short but hard and intense stage held entirely in Switzerland, from Bellinzona to Cari, followed just forty-eight hours later by the Dolomite queen stage to Piani di Pezze, which retraces some of the Giro’s most iconic roads, promise to deliver a meaningful shake-up to the general classification. If the fight for the maglia rosa will still be in the balance after that, things could change on Saturday, when the bunch tackles Piancavallo, a stage that comes before the traditional finale for the sprinters in Rome.
“It’s a nice parcours and we look forward to discovering Bulgaria. It looks like there will be plenty of opportunities for the sprinters, but once again, the route will favour the climbers. There’s that individual time trial after the first week, but the presence of so many ascents, especially in the second half of the race, will make for another demanding race”, said Soudal Quick-Step sports director Davide Bramati.
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