Bulgaria, the Dolomites and a Milan finale - 2026 Giro d'Italia route rumours

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 are few certainties about the Giro route and even the widely reported start from Bulgaria has yet to be confirmed by RCS Sport.

It is expected that a formal announcement on the Grande Partenza will be made later this month. It should be noted, mind, that the 2025 start in Albania was also due to be announced in October last year, but the ceremony was ultimately delayed until late December.

The overall Giro route presentation, meanwhile, is currently pencilled in for mid-November, but that was also the case last year, when it was eventually postponed until January.

No matter, the Bulgarian start has been confirmed by multiple local sources, 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.

Bulgarian newspaper Sega reports that the Giro will start on Saturday, May 9 in Burgas on the Black Sea coast. Sega suggests the Giro will feature three road stages in Bulgaria with finishes in Veliko Tarnovo, Plovdiv and the capital Sofia, but that report should be taken with a grain of salt given the logistical considerations of the transfer to Italy. 

The practicalities of the three-day sojourn in Bulgaria will be complicated, as RCS Sport cannot use an additional rest day to facilitate the transfer to Italy. Current UCI rules only allow Grand Tours to start on a Friday once every four years, and the Giro already played that card in 2025.

It means that the opening stanza of the Giro is unlikely to feature three road stages of up to 200km apiece. A shorter stage or perhaps a time trial in Sofia would appear a more feasible option ahead of the long transfer to Italy, unless RCS Sport can negotiate a derogation from the UCI on the additional rest day. All should be revealed later this month.

The remainder of the Giro route, by contrast, is a blur, and at this juncture, there is no concrete report of where the first Italian stage will take place. The most likely scenario would appear to be that the Giro would transfer to the Adriatic Coast in central or southern Italy, and then eventually wind northwards along the Tyrrhenian Coast, but it will all be contingent on whether RCS Sport can wrangle an extra rest day.

There are ample reports in Italian local newspapers of cities and regions bidding for Giro stages in 2026 or 2027, but there are precious few confirmed stages. Indeed, given the paucity of concrete information about the 2026 Giro route at this point, the mid-November presentation date might be premature. 

Penne has been touted as a possible stage finish in Abruzzo, while Roccella Jonica in Calabria has also announced its candidacy, though it’s not clear if the Giro will go that far south in 2026.

Naples has hosted the Giro every year since 2022, and mayor Gaetano Manfredi indicated in May that the race was likely to visit again in 2026, when the city is officially designated as European Capital of Sport. “We’re working for a Giro stage in Naples in 2026,” Manfredi told Il Mattino in May.

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 have been rumours of a stage in Turin to mark the 150th anniversary of Milano-Torino, but no concrete details have yet emerged. Aosta Sera, meanwhile, reports 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. The mountain last featured in 2018, on the day after Chris Froome's race-winning solo over the Colle delle Finestre.

Much like the rest of the route, 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.

The Veneto region has indicated its desire to host the Giro once again, and there are persistent rumours of a stage in the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park. Il Corriere delle Alpi has reported that the stage could start in Feltrino to mark the 80th anniversary of Sportful and finish in the Val Comelico, with the Passo Sant’Antonio as the final climb.

There is also the prospect of a return to the mighty Zoncolan, at least per 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.

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 it’s not yet clear if the stage would take place in 2026 or 2027.

It also remains to be seen where the 2026 Giro will finish. Rome has hosted the final stage for the past three years, triggering a long transfer from the mountains to the capital on the last Sunday of the race.

When Rome began hosting the Giro finish, it was initially reported that the deal with RCS would last until 2026, but it appears the final year of the agreement was optional, and Milan has entered the equation as a possible replacement.

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.

On Monday, Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala confirmed that he was in discussions with RCS owner Urbano Cairo about hosting the final stage of next year’s race. Some fanciful reports suggested a Turin-Milan stage to mark the anniversary of Milano-Torino, but a final time trial from Monza to Piazza Duomo looks a more likely scenario.

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.”

There are still more rumours than fact related to the 2026 Giro route, and at this rate, the mid-November presentation might be a stretch. Still, RCS Sport will already be circulating an outline of the course to teams in a bid to persuade some of the biggest names in the peloton to line up, and we can expect more concrete details of the likely time trial kilometres to emerge in the coming weeks.

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. Given his previous with the race, 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. 

Unlike the Tour, almost everything about next year’s Giro is still written in water. Watch this space.