Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.
Already a member?
Log in
The route of the 2027 Giro d’Italia has been unveiled, with the men’s race set to feature a trio of iconic climbs to attract the highest calibre of climber – although the likes of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar are expected to miss out.
The Passo del Mortirolo, Passo Gavia and Monte Zoncolan will all feature in one edition of the race for the first time, with all three coming in a typically difficult final week.
The race runs from Saturday 8 May to Sunday 30 May and begins in Trieste, briefly hopping over the border into Slovenia before returning to the north of Italy.
The furthest south it reaches is Naples where there will be a sprint finish as usual, before a return to the Alps and Dolomites which will decide the champion of the 110th edition, ahead of the now-traditional processional final stage and sprint finish in Rome.
The route, revealed in Rome on Tuesday, will traverse 3,418km and 50,250m of climbing over 21 stages, with two individual time trials, seven summit finishes and a mix of opportunities for the fast men and punchier, uphill finishes over the remaining days.
The time trials total 56.9km and are split between a mountainous test to Campo di Giove and a flat, specialist-friendly route on the Monza motor racing circuit.
The two tests against the clock are likely to appeal to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Remco Evenepoel and Decathlon CMA CGM’s Paul Seixas, major names the Giro will look to secure with defending champion Vingegaard widely expected not to return and 2024 winner Pogacar expected to target the Tour de France–Vuelta a Espana double instead of another tilt at the Italian grand tour, despite the parcours suiting the latter especially.
The 2,600m Gavia returns for the first time since 2014 on a brutal queen stage on stage 16, the first day after the final rest day. The ascent – this year’s Cima Coppi, or highest point – is sandwiched between two climbs up the Mortirolo on the way to the line in Aprica. In total the Alpine test covers 192km and 5,700m of elevation gain and is highly likely to decide the destiny of the maglia rosa.
Stage 18 is another mountainous test with 4,450m of elevation gain on the cards but the general classification favourites may opt to keep their powder dry for the penultimate outing of this grand tour, with Monte Zoncolan returning on a stage which packs 3,600m of climbing into its last 50km.
The route for the Giro d’Italia Women was also unveiled on Tuesday, with the race similarly tailor-made for the peloton’s best climbers including defending champion Demi Vollering of FDJ United-Suez.
The 2027 edition covers 1,132km across the north-west of Italy and 17,450m of climbing, over 5,000m more than in this year’s race.
As with the men’s race the maglia rosa will be decided in the Alps, first on a 11km mountainous time trial – similar to the Dolomites TT this year – and then on the final stage, the queen stage around Mont Blanc which takes in 4,000m of climbing over four classified climbs.
The races overlap by one day, with the women’s peloton setting off on Saturday 29 May in Tuscany and concluding nine days later.
