My favorite cycling race of the year is here. The Giro d’Italia is the first grand tour of the season, and marks the beginning of the big stage races of the cycling calendar. The Giro might be best because it’s first. It is also filled with chaos, bright colors (pink jersey = best jersey), great food, and stunning views. Last year’s Giro had the best stage in cycling out of all three grand tours.
This year’s Giro is a return to some familiar sites but the GC battle is brand new, with none of last year’s podium finishers returning to this year’s Giro.
Route Overview
The 2026 Giro begins in the not-quite-neighboring country of Bulgaria, starting in the eastern city of Nessebar and moving westward towards its capital: Sofia. This is the second consecutive foreign grande partenza for the Giro, following last year’s Albanian grand depart.
After three stages in Bulgaria, the Giro moves to the southwestern boot-tip of Italy. The Giro will then pushes north towards the Alps and Dolomites — the mountain ranges that define the Giro.
Overall this year offers:
- Total distance of 3,468 km or 2,155 mi over 21 stages. (This is an average of 165 km or 103 mi per stage).
- 48,700 m or 53,259 yards of altitude gain (e.g more than 5 times the height of Mount Everest!)
- 1 Individual Time Trial
- 7 Sprint Stages
- 6 Medium Mountain/Hilly Stages
- 7 High Mountain Stages
The Contenders
For the General Classification (GC) Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma Lease-A-Bike) is the main contender. The two-time Tour de France winner, and previous Vuelta a España winner is looking to add the Giro d’Italia to his palmares in his first ever attempt at the race.
It is Vingegaard’s race to lose with his major competitors: Joao Almeida, and Richard Carapaz not starting due to illness and injury.
While teams Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe and UAE Team Emirates bring strong riders, Jonas Vingegaard should be able to win this race by minutes.
For the points classification (e.g. the sprinters classification), Italian native Jonathan Milan on Lidl-Trek is the favorite, but other sprinters like Tobias Lund Andresen, Dylan Groenewegen, Paul Magnier, and others will also contend for the fast stages.
And, there are enough medium mountain/hilly stages for breakaway specialists to fight for a stage win.
Stay tuned!
You can watch this year’s Giro d’Italia on HBO max. While on its face it won’t be as open of a race as last year’s the Giro d’Italia always offers incredible energy and exciting racing. Stay tuned for my first recap post (and dish) after the Bulgarian grande partenza!
Ciao!