A stage-by-stage look at the Giro Women’s route. It will run from Saturday 29 May to Sunday 6 June.
Stage 1 starts on the roads where Tirreno-Adriatico also begins every March. Four climbs to Pitoro define the stage, it’s got three kilometres with a 7% average but it’s irregular, twisting uphill and the slope hits 10% towards the top. Crucially there’s 20km to get back in time for the finish through Camaiore into Viareggio so if teams want to drop the sprinters they’ll have to make the race hard for the duration of the climb.
Stage 2 sees the race track the Tuscan coast before heading in land for the Passo del Bracco, “hound pass”, a long climb but it’s bark is no worse than its bite, mainly a gentle climb although there is 3.5km at 6-7%. There’s more ups and downs including the Passo di Ruta at San Martino before the finish in Genoa. Like the previous stage this climb could split things up but there’s time to regroup on the Via Aurelia coastal road.
Stage 3 starts in Cogorno and heads into the Apeninnes. The Passo del Bocco is probably the gentlest crossing, 5% for 15km and then a long ride to Viadana on the left, Lombard bank of of the Po river.
Stage 4 is the first mountain stage with 3,500m of vertical gain. It’s a hipster tour of Lombardy with some roads used for the autumn classic midway before the uphill finish. A summit finish? The question is because the road climbs gently to the finish for the most part, it’s only the last 4km that it gets to 8%.
Stage 5 has a loop into the flat countryside before four flat laps around Cassano, an obvious sprint stage and also a recovery day for the GC contenders.
Stage 6 is only 137km but it ought to be plenty as it packs 3,550m of vertical gain. The Passo San Marco is a giant 20km long and the upper slopes are 8% or more. A long descent and then plenty of road roads on the valley lead to the start of the Passo della Spluga, aka Splügenpass but before the top of the pass a right turn and the finish in Madesimo with some 10% ramps to the finish. The men’s Giro came here in 2021 but the finish was different.
Stage 7 for a sprint stage after taking a sweep around the towns and villages north of Milan including Cambiago where Ernesto Colnago set up a workshop. The finish in Rho is flat and for trivia a rare place in Italy with the letter “H” in its name.
Stage 8 and while some websites probably list the start and finish in Valdigne that’s impossible as no town as 11km long and spans this range of altitude. Instead this is a term for the upper Aosta valley, it’s really a time trial from Pre-Saint-Didier to La Thuile, as in the first half of the Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo, aka the Col du Petit Saint Bernard pass. It’s a ski station access road, complete with a fun series of hairpins soon after the start where the slope kicks up but otherwise it’s 4-5% most of the way. Some flat portions along the way could reward using a time trial bike.
Stage 9 has 3,950m of vertical gain inside just 132km. There are three hard climbs on the northern side of the Aosta valley which mean they face south and can be hot and then it’s across to the Colle San Carlo. This is a very hard climb, 10km at 10% makes it comparable to the Mortirolo, the only help is that it’s on a more even road, if the slope does get to 12% it is steady most of the time. This is where the 2019 men’s Giro was won, when Richard Carapaz attacked and left Primož Roglič and Vincenzo Nibali marking each other, the same for the descent which uses the previous day’s time trial route in reverse before taking the main valley route to climb to Courmayeur and a finish below Monte Bianco, as in Mont Blanc and western Europe’s highest mountain.
The Verdict
Glance at the map and it clearly doesn’t tour Italy, just Tuscany, Liguria, Lombardia and Aosta. There could be a way to range widder, starting south and threading a mix of sprint stages and mid-mountain days in the Apennines before an Alpine conclusion but this can’t reasonably be achieved every year for a race that lasts a long week. The northern route of 2027 goes big on the Alps.
Structurally the course is interesting for the overlap with the men’s races, RCS is taking this race to sites where it runs other races, whether Tirreno-Adriatico, Il Lombardia or the men’s Giro. Inevitably any Giro will overlap with these routes but the proximity seems more than coincidence and suggests the kind of cross-selling we see with ASO’s portfolio.
It’ll be up to the women to write their own story but already the cast of characters will be limited. This is a highly selective route with three mountain stages in the Alps, plus an uphill time trial too. Consequently we should get a convincing winner but possibly at the expense of suspense to the end.