From the shore of the Thracian Black Sea to Rome, just as the borders of the Roman Empire were studied in school, so was the route of the Giro 2026, which will start on Friday, May 8, from Nessebar, a semi-isolated medieval island, where only a narrow isthmus, a small road from nowhere, unites the continent with the pearl of the Black Sea in Bulgaria. It will not be the eastern start of the Italian race, which actually started from Jerusalem in 2018, but it will be further evidence of Corsa Rosa’s love for Eastern Europe, a year after leaving Albania, and a reminder that major stage races receive more benefits from abroad, where generous cities and countries spend fortunes to buy attraction. In 2026, the Vuelta a España will start in Monaco, a year after it started in Italy, and the Tour de France will start in Barcelona. After crossing Bulgaria in three days, to Sofia, which now lies on the western edge, Giro will fly to Catanzaro, in Calabria, where he will begin the climb into the Alps.
Because it is enough for readers of scientific journal publications to read a summary,Preliminary summary, To evaluate the quality of research, cycling enthusiasts only need four pieces of information to evaluate a trip. The Giro is defined by a positive slope of 50,000 metres, slightly less than the 54,000 that the Tour advertises, but within the very mountainous category, the top seven finishes, a flat 40km time trial and the traditional race. Tapone Dolomites last Friday. It is enough to force a grimace of incomprehension on the face of Remco Evenepoel, who was contemplating making his debut in a major event with his Red Bull team in Italy, and a wide smile on the increasingly delighted Jonas Vengegaard, the brilliant climber, winner of two Tours and a Vuelta, who finds himself with a golden opportunity to win, on his debut in Italy (he has never ridden the Giro) and joining Anquetil, Gimondi, Hinault, Merckx, Contador, Nibali and Froome in the group of winners. With the big three. Not expected is Tadej Pogacar, who still prefers the spring classics to the Italian stages. And Isaac del Toro, the great Mexican who lasted the last Giro in pink until he was sent off by Simon Yates in the Alps, may return.
It will be the Giro’s farewell to its director of the last 12 years, Mauro Vegni, who has not betrayed his beliefs: short, intense mountain stages, with fewer climbs to more than 2,000 meters of altitude for fear of sudden snowfalls so common in May that force the suspension of the stages. And Vegni does not mind betraying in a certain way the traditional names of the race – such as the historic Pordoi, Stelvio or Gavia, which do not appear in the plans, or the latest arrivals, with an increase in the proportion of increases that have become practically possible only with the technological revolution of the developments, Mortirolo or Zoncolan, which will not be loaded in 2026 either -, which have been replaced by climbing with names known only to the fans. Only the seventh stage deviates from its custom, the very long ride (246 kilometers, an extraordinary seven-hour stage in the time of four and a half summits) from Abruzzo so dear to the Vigne, to end at the Blockhouse in Merx and Fuente, and along the Roccamares descent, the most difficult.
The second week will start on Tuesday the 19th with the Tuscan Time Trial (from Viareggio to Massa, 40.2 km) and then will circle the mountains of the Aosta Valley (14th, Saturday 23rd), five compact climbs over 133 km that end in Pella, which has not been reached since 1992, when Miguel Indurin’s first Giro.
The Queen stage, the 19th of the Dolomites, from Veltri to Alleghe, will be only 151 kilometers, 5,000 meters of elevation gain with seven passes, without space for long, tactical and windy valleys, and after conquering the Giau Pass (Koppi peak, 2,233 metres) and Falzarejo, 2,105 (the only two stages with climbs of more than 2,000 meters in the entire route). Giro) will end with an ascent of Piani di Pezzè (1,451 metres), a return to the climb where Marco Pantani won the amateur Giro in 1992.
Last Saturday, the last great mountain stage, the Friulian Alps, 199 kilometers with a double ascent and a finish in Piancavallo, a climb reminiscent of Mikel Landa in 2017 (and there’s Nairo in pink) and two eventual winners, the irresistible Pantani of 1998 and Tao Geoghegan, who was starting to demolish Joao Almeida then.
A plane from Friuli, destroyed by a major earthquake 50 years ago, will take the contestants to Rome, for their triumphant entry into the capital of the Empire on Sunday 31 May.
Pirata Pantani will also be the legend remembered in the women’s Giro, which will start on Saturday 30 May from Cesenatico and finish, after nine stages, on Sunday 7 June in Saluzzo, Piedmont having contested on Saturday the sixth in the Queen’s stage, with Finistre and the final in Sestriere, a reference to the final stage of the last men’s Giro in which Yates del Toro was stripped of the pink. Also noteworthy on the route is the time trial climb to Nevegal of Dino Buzzatti’s Belluno, similar to the one won by Alberto Contador in the 2011 Giro.