Giro d'Italia 2026 Giro d'Italia Women, May 30-June 7

[Samu Cuenca]

Introduction and route overview

As one major Italian stage race draws to a close, another one begins. The women’s Giro has with its previous 36 editions the longest history of the three GT-ish races, even though it was first held four years after inaugural edition of the original Tour de France F. The last two editions have been decided on the final stage, with Elisa Longo Borghini coming out on top both times after she’s managed overturn a deficit from the opening time trial.

2025’s event saw RCS take over hosting duties, and this year we’re getting some additional changes. The race now last 9 stages and has been moved to the end of May/early June so it no longer coincides with the men’s Tour (whether that will continue to be the case going forward, and/or if it will change in case the men’s Giro succeeds in getting new calendar dates as well, is as yet unknown). Since it’s only the second time RCS are organising things, we don’t really know if they have any preferred plans when it comes to routes and pacing of said routes, so it’s not obvious if the fact that it now starts during the last weekend of the men’s race has had any impact on it.

However, what we do know is that we’re not only getting 9 stages for the first time since 2022, but also the longest route, at least if we exclude neutral zones and transfers between stages, since 2001, and in those days the race lasted two weeks and sometimes had one or two days with half stages. The added distance also means that the average stage length, excluding time trials, is 145.6 km, which is more than in this year’s Tour, and that is without having a single stage above the 160 km limit. The route’s total elevation gain is supposedly decreased compared to recent editions, but it’s obviously equally or more important how the climbing is spread out across the route. Like last year, for instance, the Passo Tonale was located at the start of a flat stage, meaning you had nearly 800m of vertical distance that only made a difference to the mountains classification.

With 9 days of racing, it is of course still impossible to visit all of Italy, though that is also often an issue for the three week GTs, but the riders will be seeing more of the host country than they did in the recent Vuelta a España. While they headed from north to southeast (and then slightly north again) in 2025, they’ll be going from south to northwest this year, but all stages will take place within northern Italy.

Stage 1: Cesenatico - Ravenna, 139km, Flat *

Stage 2: Roncade H-Farm - Caorle, 156 km, Flat **

Stage 3: Bibione - Buja, 156km, Hilly-ish ***

Stage 4: Belluno - Nevegal, 12.7km, MTT ****

Stage 5: Longarone - Sante Stefano di Cadore, 146km, Mountainous with a descent finish ****

Stage 6: Ala - Brescello, 159km, Flat *

Stage 7: Sorbolo Mezzani - Salice Terme, 159km, Flat with a long but not too difficult climb with 27 km left ***

Stage 8: Rivoli - Sestriere, 105km, Queen stage *****

Stage 9: Saluzzo - Saluzzo, 145km, Mountainous, but with a long mostly flat part at the end ****

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Jersey Favourites

Maglia Rosa

Demi Vollering
Elisa Longo Borghini, Marlen Reusser, Anna van der Breggen
Marion Bunel, Isabella Holmgren
Antonia Niedermaier, Urška Žigart, Monica Trinca Colonel, Niamh Fisher-Black
Barbara Malcotti, Lore De Schepper, Mireia Benito, Mie Bjørndal Ottestad, Valentina Cavallar, probably someone from EF, Femke de Vries

Maglia Ciclamino Rossa

Lorena Wiebes
Chiara Consonni, Elisa Balsamo, Charlotte Kool
Demi Vollering, Cat Ferguson, Lara Gillespie, Georgia Baker
Ally Wollaston, Nienke Veenhoven, Célia Gery, Femke Gerritse

Maglia Bianca

Marion Bunel, Isabella Holmgren
Lore De Schepper
Viktória Chladoňová, Rosita Reijnhout
Célia Gery, Cat Ferguson, Gaia Segato, Justyna Czapla

Maglia Azzurra

🏞️🏞️🏞️🏞️🏞️Demi Vollering
🏞️🏞️🏞️🏞️Justine Ghekiere, Femke de Vries
🏞️🏞️🏞️ Everyone else who can climb


Full start list: https://firstcycling.com/race.php?r=9064&y=2026&k=start

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Stage 1: Cesenatico - Ravenna, 139km, Flat *

The Grande Partenza takes place in Cesenatico, which in the cycling world is best known for being the hometown of Marco Pantani. I have often thought that the circuit for the annual Memorial Pantani would make for a good women’s race. However, that is not what we’ll be getting here. Not only will none of the climbs to the west of Cesenatico feature, there aren’t any climbs on the stage at all. Instead, they’ll ride north to Ravenna, and they won’t even be taking the coastal roads to get some action shots with the Mediterranean Sea in the background.

When the route was announced last year, the plan was to finish in the city after two 22.9 km laps to the seafront and back, but they have since been replaced by three 13.2 km laps in the city centre. When they reach the city for the first time, they’ll do the last 10 km of the lap, meaning almost 50 km of the stage take place there, so there’ll be plenty of time for the riders to get acquainted with the finish and/or for them to demand a neutralisation. An intermediate sprint is located in Alfonsine after 64.6 km.

Cesenatico hosted a stage finish in 2014, where Marianne Vos (who else?) was victorious, and the start of the 1999 edition took place in Ravenna, where they set off from the Mirabilandia amusement park south of the city.

Vos doing Vos stuff

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Stage 2: Roncade H-Farm - Caorle, 156 km, Flat **

For stage 2, the riders have travelled 150-200 km since yesterday evening in order to reach the neutralised start at 10:55 CEST in the municipality of Roncade, northeast of Venice. The start and finish are situated less than 50 km apart, but the riders will have to endure over three times that distance. If you’re into Strava art, you might think the designers have deliberately made the route look like something or other, but I have no artistic skills so I can’t possibly comment on that. What I can say is that it is a fairly long stage, where a 10 km neutralised zone makes sure to keep it below the 160 km limit.

While this will most likely be another bunch sprint, there is at least a climb to make sure the QOM jersey gets awarded to someone. Unsurprisingly, it’s the Giro favourite Muro di Ca' del Poggio, which makes its second consecutive appearance in this race and also its second in a race this week alone. However, this time it’s positioned somewhere it will have zero influence on who wins the stage, but as we saw the other day, the distance to the line might not really make much of a difference.

The men’s race finished in Caorle in 2023, where Alberto Dainese won his latest Giro stage in a tight sprint against Jonathan Milan and Michael Matthews. The finish line and last kilometres are exactly the same as back then. That day they had an intermediate sprint in Lido di Jesolo and then followed the coastline to Caorle, but here we’re getting cheated of seeing the ocean for the second day in a row. The intermediate sprint is located in Cimadolmo after 45 km, apparently right outside Soraya Paladin’s house.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKXBFSUmgdU

After the disqualification of Wiebes, more riders will certainly have a chance of winning, but most teams will probably still be working for their sprinters. Question is if SD Worx will do that, too, for Barbara Guarischi and Femke Gerritse, or they will try to attack in the final instead. There is a warning for thunderstorms in the area during the afternoon. The risk should be higher later in the day in most places, but the chance of rain or worse weather could still be as high as 50% when they reach Vittorio Veneto after 80 km. It could therefore be a cloudy day, but with temperatures at around 30 degrees.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Stage 3: Bibione - Buja, 156km, Hilly-ish ***

After two flat days during the conclusion of the men’s Giro, stage 3 will naturally be a day for the climbers… or maybe not. The day will bring the riders from Veneto to (Io Sono) Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the municipality of Udine, the home region of Elena Cecchini who's racing her 12th and final Giro. With a 13:30 start the riders and team staff will have had the time to get a nice sleep beforehand.

The final, like the Aprica finish last year, has a previous history with this race. On stage 2 in 2016, the Montenars climb was centre stage for all the action. They ascended it from the side they’ll be descending this year, then looped back around and continued climbing for slightly longer to finish in the town of Montenars. Evelyn Stevens outsprinted Elisa Longo Borghini, Kasia Niewiadoma and Mara Abbott on the top, while Stevens’ teammate Megan Guarnier lost the overall lead. However, Guarnier was able to regain it later on and keep it to the end to take her only Giro title, in large part thanks to Abbott’s lack of descending skills.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frqLnSXhpVw



Today's intermediate sprint is located after 50.8 km, and then the Moruzzo climbs awaits 45 km later.

When the men climbed Montenars in the 2006 Giro, Stefan Schumacher won from a breakaway. They also rode it from Artegna on that occasion, but finished right after the descent in Gemona del Friuli, where the men started from on the Piancavallo stage the other day. The 2006 stage also featured the Sammardenchia climb, which the women will do a somewhat pointless loop to near the bottom of when they leave Buja for the first time instead of heading towards Montenars right away.

On the aforementioned stage in 2016, the start of the first Montenars ascent came inside the last 20 km. From Artegna it is shorter and steeper than from the other side, since it includes over a km above 11%, meaning it’s like a Muro di Ca' del Poggio with a slightly tougher run in, but they’ll only be climbing it once and there are still 22 km left from the top of it.

The last few hundred meters of the stage are uphill with a maximum gradient of 10% according to the roadbook, I am not sure if it really is that steep, but it averages 4-5%, so it is at least not another completely flat finish. When they cross the line for the first time, they’ll climb another 300m at 4% before riding around the Monte Buja on a smaller road, which includes a 500m wall at 7-8%, but at that point there are almost 40 km left.

Stages where a full bunch or reduced bunch sprint is likely to occur that still offer up terrain to attack or to drop the sprinters can obviously make for exciting racing, like we saw on stage 3 in Burgos, but after two flat stages, I still feel like the chance of a sprint should be lower. I mean there were only two bunch sprints in total last year, and here you risk starting out with three in a row (of course, I have no idea whether this final was always the preferred choice or they had wanted to make the distance from Montenars to the finish shorter).

I can only hope the riders put my doubts to shame, and with the absence of Wiebes in mind and the fact that this stage is another 4 hour effort, I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone like Kristen Faulkner attack in the final here, but whether she or someone else will have the legs to finish it off is a different matter. However, it's worth noting that the sprint zone is "only" 3 km on this stage and that there's no 3 second rule in play either, so every second counts.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I'm getting older

 

[Libertine Seguros]

A lot of hopes on stage 5. Otherwise it follows the recent formula of "jostle for position until the big name mountain at the end of the race".

 

[ice&fire]

Anyone knows if someone at RCS has a business interest in the Ristorante Ca' del Poggio?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

A lot of hopes on stage 5. Otherwise it follows the recent formula of "jostle for position until the big name mountain at the end of the race".

The MTT should at least guarantee (meaningful) gaps before Finestre, but not necessarily benefit the riders we'd most like to see succeed.

Anyone knows if someone at RCS has a business interest in the Ristorante Ca' del Poggio?

I definitely assume they have signed a 50 year deal with them.

 

[yaco]

Wiebes should win 5 stages. This is not the best route design but lets see what happens.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The MTT should at least guarantee (meaningful) gaps before Finestre, but not necessarily benefit the riders we'd most like to see succeed.

She broke her shoulder in training, she's not going to be there.

 

[Unterlenkerfahrend]

Finally a good time slot in the calendar for this race!
Route is more meh than great. Stage 4 and 5 will already result in some good GC gaps so at least it's not the typical backlogged nothingness for 7 days and then 2 hard mountain stages. Stage 5 and Finestre are cool but otherwise I'll fear it will be a Wiebes festival.

 

[Mayomaniac]

A lot of hopes on stage 5. Otherwise it follows the recent formula of "jostle for position until the big name mountain at the end of the race".

Stage 5 is on my training climbs, so of course it's good😉

 

[Samu Cuenca]

We have live pictures with over 80 km left. The Cat's out of the race after crashing earlier . Other riders have hit the deck as well.

Sofia Arici (BePink), Sharon Spimi (Fassa Bortolo) and Valeria Curnis (Isolmant - Premac - Vittoria) have a gap of only a minute now and will probably be caught before the intermediate sprint.

 

[Didinho]

Just got all the water out of my basement from this morning. And now hearing Cat is out in a big crash. Pff what a day.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

They didn't catch them before the sprint so Arici would win it. A bit of a stupid place to have that sprint so I am glad the peloton didn't really fight for it.

 

[awavey]

come on TNT the mens stage finished nearly an hour ago, why are you still gassing about that and stealing time from the womens race, put the breakaway on your blinkin streaming service ffs

 

[Barnacle Bill]

That musette looked like it had a 2m strap... almost a messy accident

 

[yaco]

come on TNT the mens stage finished nearly an hour ago, why are you still gassing about that and stealing time from the womens race, put the breakaway on your blinkin streaming service ffs

The race is on You Tube.

 

[yaco]

The stupidity continues. Make SD Worx ride at the front for the stage. You only come to the front in the last 10kms to prepare for the final.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

We'll see now if anyone will try to bridge across to the break or simply ride past them once we hit the circuit or the pace in the peloton will be too high for that.

They didn't even survive until the circuit.

 

[JosefK]

That circuit looks like a crash will be inevitable ... hope I'm wrong.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

That circuit looks like a crash will be inevitable ... hope I'm wrong.

Even Dani Rowe wasn't far away from being hit by a bike while previewing it.

 

[yaco]

The commentary is ludicrous. AVDB was a tactically inept DS, yet the coverage is stating the opposite.

 

[awavey]

The commentary is ludicrous. AVDB was a tactically inept DS, yet the coverage is stating the opposite.

I increasingly find i watch cycling with the sound off thesedays for that reason 😆