Giro d'Italia 2027 route revealed: Two time trials and the return of the mighty Zoncolan

• From Saturday, May 8 to Sunday, May 30
• From Trieste to Rome over 3,418.9km
• 2 individual time trials for a total of 56.9km
• 6 sprint stages, 6 hilly stages, 7 mountain stages
• 8 summit finishes
• 50,250 metres of elevation gain in total

The 2027 Giro d'Italia route includes two time trials, eight summit finishes, five probable sprint stages and seven hilly finishes, as race organiser RCS Sport looks to attract some big-name pink jersey contenders and inspire aggressive racing throughout the three weeks.

The 110th edition of the corsa rosa starts in Trieste on Saturday, May 8 and ends on Sunday, May 30 in Rome, with a total of 3,418km of racing and 50,250 metres of altitude gain across the 21 stages.

The routes of the men's Giro and the Giro d'Italia Women were revealed in Rome by new race director Luca Guercilena, RCS Sport management and RCS Media Group owner Urbano Cairo.

"We wanted to create a Giro route for 'real' riders, with iconic climbs, with legendary climbs," Guercilena said of the men's route. 

"Some stages pass over the same climbs or same points, to help people see the race more often and make it more entertaining." 

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) won the 2026 Giro but it remains to be seen if he will defend his maglia rosa, or if two time trials will be enough to tempt Remco Evenepoel, Paul Seixas or any of the other big-name Grand Tour contenders.

Vingegaard was not present in Rome but a highlights reel recalled his dominant 2026 victory and the moment he celebrated victory in the Italian capital last May. 

As the many leaks and spoilers reported, the 110th edition of the Corsa Rosa will start in Trieste, in the very north-east of Italy.

The Friuli-Venezia Giulia region was due to host the 2025 Giro Grande Partenza but was out-bid by Albania. RCS Sport reportedly secured a reported near  €10 million deal by including the final mountain stage to the Zoncolan.

Friuli-Venezia Giulia spread the costs of the Grande Partenza by including a loop into Slovenia on stage 1, with stage 2 between the capital Ljubljana and Koper south of Trieste.

Stage 3 also starts in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and heads to Possagno, before stage 4 turns south to Misano Adriatico for a fast finish on the Marco Simoncelli motor racing circuit. After late climbs testing the sprinters for three days, stage 4 should finally be a high-speed sprint finish.

The first summit finish comes the day after, with stage 5 starting in Michele Scarponi's home town of Filottrano and including numerous steep 'muri' climbs before the 13.1km, 7.4% climb to the finish at Sassotetto, that is often climbed during Tirreno-Adriatico. It will be the first major 'GC day' of the 2027 Giro, with 3,300 metres of climbing in just 139km of racing.

The route will head further south into Abruzzo for a finish in Lanciano before the return of the cronoscalata with a mountain time trial on stage 7.

The 19.6km time trial starts on the high plain of Sulmona and then climbs gradually along an Apennine valley road for 7km. The gradient steepens after some hairpins and heads up to the Campo di Giove ski resort summit finish but is often closer to 4.4% than the steepest point at 9%.

It is a time trial for GC specialists like Evenepoel rather than pure climbers like Vingegaard, with riders needing to climb in an aero tuck position even as the road climbs gradually.

The Giro route crosses to the Tyrrhenian coast and reaches its southernmost point in Naples on stage 8. The finish avoids the slick cobbles of central Piazza del Plebiscito and finishes with a short climb to the line. Once again, the sprinters will have to suffer for their success.

The first week of the 2027 Giro officially ends with a mountain finish on Monte Livata, overlooking Rome. The final climb is 13.9km long, with the first three kilometres at 10% and then the remaining 10km at a more gradual 5.8%. It should be another GC day, with another possible change in race leadership. 

The second week of the Giro rides north via Umbria and Tuscany, with the motor racing circuit finish theme continuing with a stage and a probable sprint finish on the Mugello track in the hills above Florence. In theory, RCS Sport could charge fans to access the three closed circuits next May and offer them far better hospitality and services. It will be interesting to see if Guercilena dares to try such a move to monetise the tifosi.

Stage 12 starts in Montecatini Terme and climbs into the Apennines via the Garfagnana valley north of Lucca. The summit finish at Zum Zeri is 8.4km long at 8.7%, with the final 2.4km at over 10%, another chance for the climbers to pull back some time.

Stage 13 to Reggio Emilia is a day for the sprinters before a transfer north for stage 14 to the little-known Piani di Bobbio climb north of Bergamo.

The 187km stage includes 4,900 metres of climbing and is like a mini Il Lombardia, including an early visit to the Madonna del Ghisallo. There are three categorised climbs before the 10km, 9% ride to the summit finish. The central 8km are at 10.2%.

The second week of the Giro ends with the second time trial from Monza to central Milan, giving the city a stage to celebrate after losing the traditional finish to Rome in recent years. The 37.3km route is on flat, fast and largely straight roads, making it a day for the pure time trialists and the GC contenders looking to gain time on their rivals before the decisive mountain stages. 

Week three of the Giro starts with the hardest, most mountainous stage, a 192km five-star leg from Sondrio to Aprica.

The 5,700 metres of altitude gain include the double climb of the Passo del Mortirolo, with the Passo del Gavia the meat in the middle of the tasty Giro focaccia. 

At 2,618m, the Gavia is the highest point of the 2027 Giro, with RCS Sport taking a bet that any snow will be cleared and that bad weather does not spark a rider protest and a last-minute route change. 

The Mortirolo is climbed after 32km and again with just 45km to race. It will be an ideal spot for thousands of tifosi to watch the race twice as the riders suffer on the 12% gradients. The GC battle will be intense.

RCS Sport lists the stage as a mountain finish but the ride to Aprica is a gradual valley road, which once saw Ivan Basso and Gilberto Simoni argue about the stage victory, secret payments and honesty.   

Stage 17 is a transfer ride east from Chiari near Brescia to Vo', where two late climbs will again test the sprinters and their lead-outs.

The mountains return on stage 18 to Madonna di Campiglio, with five major categorised climbs making it an ideal breakaway stage for riders chasing the mountains classification.

The finish in Madonna di Campiglio will surely evoke memories of the 1999 Giro when Marco Pantani failed a haematocrit test in his hotel and was disqualified from the Giro while leading the race, sparking one of the biggest scandals in the history of the Giro. 

A flat stage takes the race back to the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region on stage 19 with a sprint opportunity in Sacile, before the final mountain stage up to Monte Zoncolan. Much of stage 20 is on the plains, with the Passo Duron and the Sella Valcalda climbs as warm-ups for the final showdown.

The Zoncolan is climbed from the traditional Ovaro side, rising from 530 metres to 1,730 metres in just 10.1km, with a wicked average gradient of 11.9%. The summit finish is in the natural amphitheatre that opens after a late tunnel and will surely be packed with thousands of tifosi. This side of the Zoncolan was last raced in the Giro in 2018, when Chris Froome won alone and went on to win the Giro.

The time trials will mean the pure climbers perhaps start the stage with time still to pull back but they could ascend into the maglia rosa in the final kilometres of the final mountain stage of the 2027 Giro.

Whoever pulls on the maglia rosa atop the Zoncolan will then be crowned as the 2027 winner 24 hours later in Rome on Sunday, May 30 after the circuit stage around the Colosseum and Circo Massimo.