Giro d'Italia 2027: The five key stages, from Campo di Giove to the Zoncolan

The 2027 Giro d’Italia starts in Trieste on May 8 and concludes in Rome on May 30. The race features some eight summit finishes and a total of 56.9km of time trialling spread across two stages. 

For a full breakdown of the route, read our 2027 Giro guide here, while you can find analysis of who might line up in May – and why – here. 

There’s an early summit finish at Sassottetto on stage 5, but on the evidence of Tirreno-Adriatico’s visits, the climb should not provoke the kind of separation Jonas Vingegaard achieved on the Blockhaus in 2026.

Two days later, however, the mountain time trial to Campo di Giove promises to be a hugely significant rendezvous at the Giro. The riders set out from Sulmona, birthplace of Ovid, but there will be no looking back here. The course tackles gently rising false flat for the first 7km before the 12.5km climb to the finish line in the striking Majella National Park.

Although there are a couple of ramps at 9%, the climb is a steady one, with the gradient rarely flitting above 5%. It has much more in common with the uphill tests we have seen in the past at San Marino than with a full-blown cronoscalata like Monte Lussari in 2023, but that doesn’t make the day any less pivotal.

A strong and aerodynamic time triallist can gain a lot of ground on a day like this, much like Primoz Roglic did in San Marino in 2019. This short test will be of outsized importance in the overall context of the Giro.

The modern Giro, its backloaded finale, has often produced rather underwhelming second weeks, but Luca Guercilena and technical director Stefano Allocchio have done their best to add a little pepper on the long road north, with a tricky finale in Norcia on stage 10 and a summit finish at Zeri two days later. 

But the most intriguing offering comes on stage 14, which sees the Giro take in terrain familiar from Il Lombardia, which surely won’t displease Paul Seixas, if he opts to venture south of the Alps in May.

The Madonna del Ghisallo comes early on the stage, followed by Culmine di San Pietro, Miragolo San Salvatore and the short punchy climb to Alino. But rather than finish in Bergamo or on the shores of Lake Como, the route winds its way northwards and into the Valsassina for a new summit finish at the ski resort of Piani di Bobbio.

The stiff final ascent is 10km in length with an average gradient of 9% as it climbs to a finish line 1,682m above sea level. The toughest sections come near the summit, with the gradient touching 18% inside the final 2km. With some 4,900m of total climbing, this is not a stage to be underestimated.

Time trialling is suddenly back en vogue at the Grand Tours in 2027 after seeming to fall out of fashion over the past decade or so. The Tour de France route includes some 71km against the watch, and the Giro also has plenty to offer the time triallists, in keeping with Guercilena’s pledge when he took up the role of race director.

A flat time trial on stage 15 had been rumoured for some time, but the distance is a touch longer than most educated guesses had anticipated. The Giro’s continuing agreement to visit the city of Milan played a part in the eventual 37.3km course, and it presents a clear opportunity for a time triallist to lay down a hefty marker ahead of the arduous final week.

On paper, it looks made for Remco Evenepoel, but the four-time world champion in the discipline seems likely to build his season around the Tour. In any case, the stage is sure to produce significant gaps, especially with the efforts of the previous day’s Piani di Bobbio stage weighing on the contenders’ legs.

Every Giro has a tappone, and this is a tappone straight out of central casting. In recent years, RCS Sport has been careful to moderate its excesses, eager to encourage riders like Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard to race in Italy in May before turning their attentions to the Tour. The 2027 Giro largely follows in the same vein, but stage 16 is an outlier, a throwback to the era of Angelo Zomegnan, a time when no combination of climbs was deemed too extreme.

After the Giro’s second rest day, the race resumes with a stage that features some 5,700m of climbing in 192km of racing. It’s not quite as demanding as the mammoth 6,100m that featured on the notorious Gardeccia stage back in 2011, but it’s the toughest day of the 2027 Giro and by some distance.

After leaving Sondrio, the race tackles the fearsome Mortirolo by way of its classic, Mazzo di Valtellina side, which averages 10.1% across its 12.8km. After descending to Monno, the route swings directly onto the mighty Passo di Gavia, which climbs inexorably for 16.5km at an average of 8%. 

After a descent of more than 50km, the race loops back to Mazzo di Valtellina and tackles the Mortirolo for a second time, with the steepest 18% gradients sure to create separation. The summit comes 34km from the finish, which comes after the steady climb from Edolo to Aprica. 

At 2,618m, the Gavia is the highest point of the Giro, though only time will tell if weather conditions allow the race to climb all the way to the summit. After recent misadventures, it’s a calculated gamble from RCS Sport to include it for the first time since 2014, and that probably explains why the organisation has included that second lap over the Mortirolo as an insurance policy. Even if the Gavia is cut, there is still scope for a brute of a stage.

Mauro Vegni’s final act as Giro director was to design the 2026 route, and when the race visited Friuli on the final weekend, he resisted the temptation to include the Zoncolan. His rationale was that the wickedly steep climb would dissuade podium contenders from racing aggressively across the final week, and he opted instead to route the Giro over twin ascents of Piancavallo.

The Giro returns to Friuli on the final Saturday in 2027, but this time the Zoncolan returns for the first time since 2021, and the race tackles the ‘Kaiser’ by its steeper approach from Ovaro for the first time since Chris Froome held off Simon Yates in 2018.

RCS Sport has opted against consecutive days in the high mountains in the final week of the Giro. The tappone is followed by a gentler day to Vo’, while the arduous leg to Madonna di Campiglio, with its 4,450m of climbing, is followed by a rugged trek to Sacile that looks like a day for the break rather than the GC men.

Stage 20, by contrast, is resolutely a GC day, even if the climbing is packed into the final 50km or so. Like in 2018, the Passo Duron and Sella Valcalda will begin the winnowing process, but the main event is on the 10.1km haul to the line.

The Zoncolan scarcely needs any trumpeting. It has an average gradient of 11.9% and it ramps up above 20% in places, but the raw numbers don’t fully explain the difficulty of a climb like this. The long straights through the forest offer little respite and no distraction from the severity of the effort. Momentum is everything on a climb as tough as this.