Official date set for the 2026 Giro d’Italia route presentation

The 2026 Giro d’Italia route presentation will take place in Rome on December 1. RCS Sport confirmed on Tuesday that the men’s and women’s routes will be unveiled at the Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone auditorium, with the event beginning at 3.30 pm CET.

Last year, delays in confirming the Grande Partenza in Albania saw the presentation postponed until January. Tuesday’s announcement indicates that RCS Sport have succeeded in signing a formal agreement with Bulgaria to host the start of the 2026 race.

The Giro will be the second Grand Tour to unveil its 2026 route after the Tour de France was presented in its traditional October slot. The 2026 Vuelta a España route presentation is scheduled for December 17 in Monaco.

Some details of the 2026 men’s Giro route have been reported by local media in Italy, but there are still many gaps to be filled in. The race is scheduled to start on Saturday, May 9, but it remains to be seen if RCS Sport will succeed in lobbying the UCI for an additional rest day to facilitate the expected Bulgarian start.

Although RCS president Urbano Cairo last month confirmed that Bulgaria would host the Grande Partenza, the details of the three stages in the country remain unknown. Reports in Bulgaria suggest the race will start at Burgas on the Black Sea coast, with stage finishes in Veliko Tarnovo, Plovdiv and the capital Sofia.

The Giro’s first stage on Italian roads is expected to be in Calabria, with Naples likely to feature in the opening week ahead of a summit finish on the Blockhaus. 

A time trial in Barolo wine country has also been touted towards the end of the second week, as well as a possible summit finish.

Carí in Switzerland is expected to host a summit finish in the final week, while it has been heavily rumoured that stage 19 will be a tappone in the Dolomites featuring the Passo Giau and the Passo Falzarego before a finish at Piani di Pezzè.

Il Messaggero Veneto has reported that stage 20 will take place entirely in Friuli, and in his final act as Giro route designer, outgoing director Mauro Vegni has opted for a double ascent of Piancavallo rather than bringing the race back to the Zoncolan.

Despite persistent rumours that the Giro would return to a Milan finish, the decision to hold the presentation in Rome would suggest that the race will finish in the capital for the fourth consecutive year.

Simon Yates is the defending Giro champion, but his Visma | Lease a Bike teammate Jonas Vingegaard has expressed his interest in making his corsa rosa debut in a bid to complete a full set of Grand Tour victories. The Dane was linked with a possible Giro participation last year before he ultimately opted against it.

2024 champion Tadej Pogacar seems unlikely to return given his desire to tackle Paris-Roubaix and his obligation to chase a record-equalling fifth Tour de France victory, but his UAE Team Emirates companion Isaac del Toro could feature at the Giro again after losing the pink jersey on the final weekend in 2024.