Vegni defends 'balanced' Giro route in bid to attract Evenepoel and Vingegaard

It hasn’t gone unnoticed that the 2026 Giro d’Italia is a little lighter on climbing than usual, having been designed expressly to persuade men like Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel to combine the race with their planned tilts at the Tour de France.

Amid the speeches, formalities and politicking, Monday’s presentation in Rome dragged on for more than two hours, even though most the route had been leaked in advance. “The presentation was harder than the Giro itself,” was the verdict of Cristiano Gatti of Tuttobiciweb after the lights finally went up in the auditorium.

Always an astute observer of such things, Gatti isn’t far off the mark. The 2026 Giro has just over 49,000m of climbing and only two of its 21 stages – to Pila on stage 14 and the Dolomite tappone on stage 19 – have been given five-star difficulty ratings.

The total altitude gain was even less two years when Tadej Pogacar became the first man since Marco Pantani in 1998 to complete the Giro-Tour double. But the 2026 route – the last to be designed by Mauro Vegni before his retirement as race director in February – feels even more obviously pitched at riders who want to challenge for two Grand Tour titles in the same season.

“It’s a demanding and balanced race,” Vegni said, according to Tuttobiciweb. “Of course, we hope that the teams and various champions will evaluate it positively. If I were Jonas Vingegaard, I wouldn’t miss the opportunity to come and race it, because if he won it, he would complete his collection of Grand Tours ahead of Pogacar, given that he has already won the Tour and the Vuelta.”

The Giro presented on Monday is slightly less demanding than the course that was rumoured beforehand. Most notably, stage 16 to Carì, which takes place entirely in Switzerland, does not feature the San Gottardo as previously anticipated. It appears that RCS Sport’s hands were tied by concerns raised by local authorities about the viability of their preferred route. 

Even so, Vegni was adamant that the short stage – the first after the final rest day – would provoke separation among the GC men and he also insisted the first two weeks offered a varied menu of racing.

“It’s a balanced Giro: three weeks that alternate short, demanding stages and longer stages that invite attacking. The hope is that there won’t be any dull days or any so-called dead stages. The first week will be eventful for the GC, with Blockhaus, the muri around Fermo, and then Corno alle Scale. 

“We start again with a demanding time trial, which will be crucial for the GC contenders. Keep an eye on the Swiss stage Bellinzona-Carì, it will be short and explosive. Then there’s the stage Andalo, the finish in Alleghe and the double climb of Piancavallo as a final test.”

The burning question, however, is whether this ‘lighter’ Giro would suffice to tempt Vingegaard and Evenepoel into riding the race. Vingegaard has expressed firm interest, albeit with the caveat that the Tour remains his priority and that he will only decide on his programme after consulting with his Visma | Lease a Bike team. 

Evenepoel has floated the idea of riding the Giro and Tour in his first season with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, but he has also declared himself open to a fuller Classics campaign that would include Milan-San Remo and Il Lombardia. Something has to give.

“We understand that they want to come, and we’re counting on it. They would be two stars of the first magnitude, and I don’t think there's any question about that,” said Vegni, who will be replaced by Stefano Allocchio as race director in 2026.

Pogacar, meanwhile, looks set to forgo the Giro in 2026 in favour of riding the Classics and the Tour, but Vegni expressed optimism that he would eventually return to the corsa rosa. “Pogacar? He’ll be back,” he said.