Bulgaria, a long time trial and double Piancavallo - What we know ahead of Giro d'Italia route presentation

In generations past, Beppe Conti would manage to leak more or less the entire route in the pages of Tuttosport ahead of the presentation. So far this year, there have been fewer certainties about the Giro route and even the widely reported start from Bulgaria has yet to be formally announced by RCS Sport, even if president Urbano Cairo essentially confirmed it would happen during an appearance at the Festival dello Sport in October.

Last year, delays over signing an agreement for the start in Albania meant the Giro route presentation was delayed until January, but it seems RCS Sport have struck an accord with Bulgaria a little more swiftly. 

The 2026 Giro route presentation, initially floated for mid-November, will now take place in Rome on Monday, December 1. 

The Bulgarian start has been reported by multiple local sources since earlier this year, and it has been reported that the government is set to pay some €12.5 million for the event, a significant increase on last year’s fee from Albania. 

Last week, the UCI calendar was amended to bring the Giro start date forward to Friday, May 8, which further confirms that the Grande Partenza will be in Bulgaria. Sources have confirmed to Domestique that RCS Sport successfully lobbied the UCI for an additional rest day for a second successive year, despite rules that allow Grand Tours to have an extra day only once in every four editions.

Bulgarian newspaper Sega has reported that the race will feature three road stages in Bulgaria, and this tallies with Domestique’s latest information. Stage 1 will be along the Black Sea Coast with a finish in Burgas, while stage 2 will finish in Veliko Tarnovo and stage 3 in the capital Sofia.

A rest day on Monday, May 11 will allow the Giro to make the long, long transfer to Calabria for the leg on Italian roads on stage 4.

The first Giro stage in Italy will take place entirely in Calabria and the race will begin to wind its way northwards to Naples, which has hosted the race every year since 2022. It looks almost certain to do so again in 2026 in order to mark the city’s status as European Capital of Sport. “We’re working for a Giro stage in Naples in 2026,” mayor Gaetano Manfredi told Il Mattino in May.

There have been ample reports in Italian local newspapers of cities and regions bidding for Giro stages in 2026 or 2027.

There are persistent reports that the first mountaintop finish of the 2026 Giro will be the Blockhaus, with cicloweb.it suggesting that the race will climb the ascent from the Roccamorice side.

There were murmurs of a time trial in the second week in Langhe wine country, similar to the Barbaresco to Barolo test of 2014, but the Giro's long time trial instead looks set to be in Tuscany, as Het Laatste Nieuwsreported at the weekend. Domestique understands the Giro's lone time trial will be approximately 40km in length - notably more than the 26km time trial at the Tour de France, and therefore a feature that will appeal to Remco Evenepoel.

Genova24 has reported that the Giro will return to Liguria in 2026, with Chiavari - site of Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali's summit meeting before the 1949 Tour de France - the most likely site for the finish of a stage that would start in Tuscany. The following day’s stage would set out off from Imperia and into Piedmont.

There were rumours of a stage in Turin to mark the 150th anniversary of Milano-Torino, but that now seems unlikely. Aosta Sera, meanwhile, reported that Cervinia has launched a “strong” bid to host a stage finish in 2026 and that Marco della Vedova of RCS visited during the summer on a reconnaissance mission. A stage finish in Aosta on the third weekend thus looks certain, but it's not clear if it will be in Cervinia or elsewhere.

There is evidence of bids for possible mountain stages on the 2026 Giro, but nothing has yet been confirmed. One of the most plausible hypotheses is a summit finish at Carì in Switzerland on a climb with some 22 hairpins. Local newspaper Il Corriere del Ticino has been reporting on the prospect since late 2024, and it seems likely to feature at the start of the third week.

The Eco di Bergamoreports that stage 17 will start from Cassano d'Adda before heading into Trentino for a possible - though not quite confirmed - summit finish at Madonna di Campiglio. 

The Veneto region has indicated its desire to host the Giro once again, and there are persistent rumours of that stage 19 will take place in the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park. Il Corriere delle Alpi has reported that the stage could start in Feltre to mark the 80th anniversary of Sportful and more recent reports indicate the Passo Giau will feature ahead of a new finish at Piani di Pezzè.

The prospect of a return to the mighty Zoncolan has faded, despite the hopes of Lino Not, the mayor of Ovaro at the base of the climb. “We’ve had some contact, and I think there’s interest from everybody to bring the Zoncolan back to the Giro,” he said in June. 

Instead, the Giro's foray into Friuli on stage 20 looks set to feature two ascents of the Piancavallo. Il Messaggero Venetohas reported that Mauro Vegni, in his final Giro as route designer, preferred to have a slightly gentler summit finish due to concerns that the Zoncolan would inhibit aggressive racing in the third week.

Other unsubstantiated rumours include a possible summit finish on the Passo Forcora near Varese, while local politicians in the province of Piacenza have indicated a bid to host a summit finish atop Sella dei Generali, though both options now look more likely for 2027 than for 2026.

In the Autumn, there were some doubts about where the Giro would finish, with Milan entering the equation as a possibility for the grand finale. However, the location of the Giro presentation confirms what has been widely reported - Rome will host the final stage of the Giro for the fourth year in succession, meaning there will be a long transfer from Friuli to the capital on the last Sunday of the race. And, barring a late change of heart, the Giro will again conclude with a circuit race and not with a time trial.

Home of RCS and La Gazzetta dello Sport, Milan is the traditional site of the finale of the Giro, but the city had appeared to lose interest in the event in recent years, and it hasn’t hosted the race since the final time trial in 2021.

Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala has confirmed that he was in discussions with RCS owner Urbano Cairo about hosting the final stage of next year’s race. That won't happen, but there is still the distinct - or perhaps very likely - prospect of a stage finish in Milan during the race, much like in 2009's centenary edition.

Sala has also indicated a desire to bring the start of Milan-San Remo back to the city after this year’s edition set out from Pavia.

“We’re talking about it, and I hope that we’ll soon arrive at a positive solution to bring the Giro d’Italia back to Milan in 2026,” Sala said, though he added: “Negotiating with Cairo isn’t the easiest thing in the world.”

The route will be confirmed in full on December 1, but RCS Sport will already have circulated an outline of the course to teams in a bid to persuade some of the biggest names in the peloton to line up.

Tadej Pogacar’s return to the Giro looks unlikely at this juncture given his certain presence at the Tour de France and his desire to take another tilt at Paris-Roubaix, but his programme won’t be publicly confirmed until December. If he is absent, UAE will surely delegate either João Almeida or Isaac del Toro to lead.

Jonas Vingegaard has teased the possibility of making his Giro debut while also stressing that the Tour remains his raison d’être as a rider. Like a year ago, rumours of his possible participation will rumble on for much of the winter, but much will surely depend on whether the route makes a double bid feasible or not. 

If the total climbing is under 50,000m - and the early indications are that it will be in that ballpark - then a double tilt might be a runner. In any case, and given his previous with the Giro, it would be a surprise if defending champion Simon Yates didn't return.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s depth means they will inevitably line up with a potential winner, but it’s not yet clear if their squad will be spearheaded by Remco Evenepoel, Primoz Roglic, Florian Lipowitz, Jai Hindley or even Giulio Pellizzari. 

If that Tuscany time trial is confirmed, then Evenepoel might well be persuaded to try the Giro-Tour double. He told Het Laatste Nieuws that he had a Plan A and a Plan B for the 2026 season, with the Tour a near certainty and the Giro a real possibility.  

December 1 will reveal a lot more about the configuration of the 2026 season.