The 2026 Giro d'Italia route, unveiled in Rome later today, is Mauro Vegni’s parting shot to tradition. His final design as race director opens with a three‑day Grande Partenza in Bulgaria, skips both the Stelvio and Monte Zoncolan, and saves the most mythic climb of the whole project – the gravel Colle delle Finestre – for the Giro d'Italia Women.
The men roll out on 8 May with a Bulgarian bloc that reportedly cost the host nation around €12.5 million in fees. Stage finishes are expected on the Black Sea coast at Burgas, in Veliko Tarnovo and then Sofia, with an early uphill sprint in Veliko Tarnovo tailor‑made for punchy finishers such as Thibau Nys (Lidl‑Trek).
From there the Giro hops back across the Adriatic to Calabria for Stage 4 and winds north through the Apennines, with Vegni front‑loading the first major GC confrontation.
Blockhaus early, Piancavallo late, and a single time trial
The first proper mountain showdown comes early, with a summit finish on the Blockhaus in Abruzzo, likely on Stage 7. It is a statement of intent: the climbers get nowhere to hide in week one.
Against that, the time triallist have just a single chance to stack seconds. A lone 40 km individual time trial in Tuscany, expected between Viareggio and Massa, sits as the route’s pure specialists’ day against the clock. That one ITT has already cooled some enthusiasm for a Giro–Tour double among GC stars, as we explored in our earlier Evenepoel calendar report.
Instead of the hyper‑selective Zoncolan, Stage 20 brings a double ascent of Piancavallo in Friuli. Climbed twice, with a descent and valley reset in between, it promises repeated accelerations rather than a single, oxygen‑starved grind. It is very Vegni: hard, but designed to provoke racing rather than fear.
Earlier rumours of a Stelvio cameo did not survive into the final map. For the first time in years the Giro’s myth‑making is not about the highest snow walls, but about how often the GC riders are forced to fight.
"We have never been scared to innovate," Vegni said in an inteview with Cyclingnews. "We sometimes take risks, and sometimes our ideas go wrong, but they are always worth the work when we add something new and extra to the Giro."
Finestre crowns the Giro d'Italia Women
If the men get the money move to Bulgaria, the women get the purest symbol. The Giro d'Italia Women, now in its new 30 May to 7 June slot, claims the Colle delle Finestre as its headline act according to a report from Het Laatste Nieuws. The iconic dirt‑road pass, absent from the men’s 2026 route, is the most spectacular climb in the entire presentation.
The calendar reshuffle, avoiding a clash with the Tour de France, already pointed to RCS Sport taking the Giro d'Italia Women more seriously. Giving it Finestre confirms it. While the men’s race chases new markets in the Balkans, the women are gifted the purest hit of vero ciclismo that Vegni likes to talk about.
His legacy will be argued over, from Jerusalem to Budapest and now Sofia. But if you were looking for one image to define his final Giro, it might not be a pink jersey on Piancavallo at all. It might be the women snaking up those white gravel hairpins of the Finestre, on the climb that belongs to them.
Cover picture credit: Thomas Maheux/SWpix.com
