Giro d'Italia Giro d'Italia 2025 Route: Speculation, Rumours and Announcements

[ashhutch1997]

Well the final details will decide if it's normal, good or even a great route. I like routes were the people in charge offer possibilities to attack from far and take some risk that the stage will disappoint in the end. We seems to get quite some of those stages indeed. One major HC finish on the wrong spot in the route however can ruin those stages completely or the wrong order of stages. So yeah, a lot depends in that case on which side of the mortirolo they do (monno or monno via recta Contador). And if they put already something before Tonale. Or that they choose to make the stage before the Mortirolo the queenstage and the Mortirolo stage only a "soft" one.

People here already whining that it's horrible they skip the gavia are a bit to quick in their conclusion. If indeed we only get Tonale and normal Mortirolo from Monno, yes, very disappointing. But with the Contador variant I see lot's of possibilities for a very long final in that stage.

My problem is that it'll be the third time in a row they are using the Mortirolo from the wrong side.

 

[JReed27]

Pradaccio at 80km to go isn't an attacking opportunity. Grappa at 50km to go with flat and a 4% climb after isn't really an attacking opportunity. Mortirolo, to go, even if you take Recta Contador, isn't even that greate of an opportunity.

Pradaccio is nothing more than a publicity stunt that will only serve to dissapoint fans on what would normally be a fine medium mountain stage. Grappa stage looks really bad especially as it would supposedly be replacing a stage around cortina which would probably be a lot better, even with foza it wasn't great but with enego it stinks.
I'm convinced a good stage to bormio via the mortirolo exists, the valley road is deceptively hard (20km @2.5%) although not as hard as Aprica (13km @ 4%) so for it to work the stage would need to be really tough like >200km and >5000m+, it would need to take in a very difficult side of the mortirolo like Guspessa, Mazzo, or Recta Contador and it can't have an unnecesary 10km over Le Motte. None of these requirements seem to be matched in the rumoured route so my expectations are low.
I do really like the sound of the first 2 weeks and the final 2 mountain stages, and while they aren't perfect even the stages I have criticised here offer some opportunities for good racing even if they aren't perfect. So I'm still mostly positive on the route but this is a thread about routes and route design so I think it is fair we nitpick especially given the incredible roads Italy has to offer.

Monte Avena where Passo Manghen was way too far from the finish line.

I've always thought the should have done that stage in reverse going, Rolle-Manghen-Brocon(via Valmalene) before the final 2 climbs

 

[JReed27]

First 2 weeks sound like decent medium mountains and hills, but it lacks a solid MTF where you can gain more than a few seconds.

Like an absence of cat 1 MTFs isn't a necessary good, it's that I'd want to put the "MTF only" mountain stages in the first 12 stages. Especially in Italy where there's some very good climbs even in the south for a MTF but slightly less possibility for a great multi mountain stage.

In general I agree, recent editions that have underwhelmed have done so partially because the GC has been too close meaning the first 2 weeks are spent waiting for the last week and the last week is spent trying to hold position rather than make up time. Obviously MTFs do a good job at opening up time gaps but I'm hopeful that the medium mountiains, TTs, muri, and sterrato will create the time gaps inplace of MTFs. If anything I prefer these types of stages to create time gaps as MTFs favour the best climbers who I would prefer had to make up time in the final week but I admit a harder MTF wouldn't go amiss. Abetone after Pradaccio or Terminillio instead of Marsia and a >40km TT on stage 10 then the first 2 weeks are perfect

 

[Devil's Elbow]

First 2 weeks sound like decent medium mountains and hills, but it lacks a solid MTF where you can gain more than a few seconds.

Like an absence of cat 1 MTFs isn't a necessary good, it's that I'd want to put the "MTF only" mountain stages in the first 12 stages. Especially in Italy where there's some very good climbs even in the south for a MTF but slightly less possibility for a great multi mountain stage.

2016 had Rifugio Aremogna of all climbs as its only MTF in the first two weeks, didn't stop either the route or the racing from being pretty damn good.

Sure, a bigger MTF in the first half would add something (wouldn't say no to a non-terrible side of Etna either if Sicily is the replacement Grande Partenza), but it's a drop in the bucket compared to a hypothetical route where all four of Asiago, Bormio, Champoluc and Sestriere are done properly - if that happened, it would instantly be an all-time great route even with a very average remaining 17 stages.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Champoluc the day before Finestre, and I thought Farrapona before Angliru was so terrible.

3/3 road stages the day before Finestre have delivered about as much as you could have asked for given where they finished (Macugnaga, Cervinia, Prato Nevoso). Granted, those three stages were in relatively favourable Giri overall, but Finestre very much isn't guaranteed to block action the day before (especially not when it keeps being stage 20).

Also, anyyone with two brain cells would take those two stages over any variation of Farrapona before Angliru, but it's pretty clear that you've locked into hating on this route no matter what the final iteration is like...

 

[Peyroteo94]

Do we have a date for route's annoucement?

 

[JReed27]

Champoluc the day before Finestre, and I thought Farrapona before Angliru was so terrible.

But mainly the problem is that climbs a lot easier than Mortirolo - and some of them not even HC climbs, get treated as Mortirolo, while being a lot farther from the finish line.

100% agree, a climb needs to be properly steep and hard to force action far from the finish, a climb like grappa is hard and could lead to early action but if the group are so minded they could easily go over the top in a group of 20 like we saw with Passo Giau in 2023. Even Coll de Pradell didn't see attacks as it was so far from the end although it did trim the group down and made the final 2 climbs more open for racing. I think the list of climbs that would force action far from the finish that you can descend safely in grand tours is probably less than 5. If the tearrain and distance to the finish after the climb is suitable that number increases massively

 

[Froome]

I don't understand the comment, so fare rumours show a much better route than have been in years.

The route is ridiculous in the first 2 weeks without a real mountain stage.

The mountain stages of the last week are not that great to have attacks from far.

Horrible route, and the Giro is getting too soft.

Probably the Giro 2018 was the last decent route. Not great, but decent.

 

[JReed27]

The route is ridiculous in the first 2 weeks without a real mountain stage.

The mountain stages of the last week are not that great to have attacks from far.

Horrible route, and the Giro is getting too soft.

Probably the Giro 2018 was the last decent route. Not great, but decent.

The obvious solution to 90% of the problems the giro faces is to switch its calender position with the vuelta so they don't have to make the race easier to accomodate for top GC riders focussing on the tour and they can use high elevation climbs that are usually snowed off. This will never happen though as it would require ASO to concede the better position in the calender to RCS which will never happen and the UCI are useless so they won't step in and do the obvious things so many fans want.

Or they could stop caring about who turns up and just try and make the race as good as possible and raise the profile of the race naturally so that top riders want to win it as much as the tour. in fact they should try to capitalise on the tour being exclusively behind a pay wall in a few large markets and try selling it to tv channels to show it for free to further build its popularity

 

[gavia88]

The route is ridiculous in the first 2 weeks without a real mountain stage.

The mountain stages of the last week are not that great to have attacks from far.

Horrible route, and the Giro is getting too soft.

Probably the Giro 2018 was the last decent route. Not great, but decent.

I disagree, rumours suggest quite an entertaining first 2 weeks. Yes, it's still backloaded, but the opening weekend in Albania looks promissing (if it happenes). Futermore there seems quite some variation. Hills, medium mountain, mountain top finish, TT and even gravel. Less sprint stages than in previous years. I would say, the first 2 weeks are much better than the average 2 weeks of the giro.

I agree that giro routes have been underwhelming the last years (yes, even tour routes looked better), but I really don't understand the hate so far on this year by some posters on this forum, while rumours looks good so far.

 

[SafeBet]

Do we have a date for route's annoucement?

Nope. All quiet.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

First 2 weeks sound like decent medium mountains and hills, but it lacks a solid MTF where you can gain more than a few seconds.

Super Planche des Belles Filles would be great indeed

​

 

[OlavEH]

The route is ridiculous in the first 2 weeks without a real mountain stage.

The mountain stages of the last week are not that great to have attacks from far.

Horrible route, and the Giro is getting too soft.

Probably the Giro 2018 was the last decent route. Not great, but decent.

Still best route in several years. Okay MTF to Marsia. Sterrato stage. At least two good medium mountain stages, and perhaps more depending on what they do the first 5-6 days. The last week includes one big MTF, Finestre + Sestriere and a pretty good Aosta stage. The most disappointing aspect would be a possibly too short Bormio stage. That should rather have been a possible tappone.

 

[Netserk]

Meanwhile Angliru hasn't exactly stopped action the day before except for one year. But the main reason I'm bringing it up was because you did so in the Vuelta thread.

Mainly we're just measuring with different sticks. With the Vuelta you know what you get and it's gonna give you a route with high predictability, a high floor and a low ceiling, in which case I think a detail like MTF ordering matters fairly little. Now in the Giro, I'm seeing heaps of praise for a fair number of stages that are pretty damn mid all because there's no big MTFs in them.

I think the very lack of MTFs in itself make the mountain stages better. Bormio is more likely to see action if Finestre is the only better opportunity afterwards.

 

[Froome]

The combination finestre-sestriere is the only good thing i see in this course. The combination Finestre-sestriere is great to some long range attack.

The rest of the mountain stages don't look that great for that.

 

[Jan the Man]

The combination finestre-sestriere is the only good thing i see in this course. The combination Finestre-sestriere is great to some long range attack.

The rest of the mountain stages don't look that great for that.

It is the racers which make the racing- you get ‘bad routes’ raced well which are far more entertaining than ‘good’ routes raced conservatively

 

[Froome]

It is the racers which make the racing- you get ‘bad routes’ raced well which are far more entertaining than ‘good’ routes raced conservatively

If you put Finestre 120 km from the finish line, nothing will happens there.

 

[gavia88]

If you put Finestre 120 km from the finish line, nothing will happens there.

people said that as well in for the stage Froome turned around in 2018 when Finestre was only the 3rd last climb of that stage. (you should know that with your forum name) (so quite a bad example)

I really have the impression you dislike the route just for the sake of disliking it. Or you really think mountain stages are better if they have hard HC finishes and cols have to be famous, otherwise it's a bad mountain stage.

I actually enjoy the origanality of the rumours so far. A good mix of never used combo's, not to many hard mountain top finishes and a lot of possibilities for attacking from far, ambush or just entertaining medium mountain. And still a few classics.

 

[Froome]

people said that as well in for the stage Froome turned around in 2018 when Finestre was only the 3rd last climb of that stage. (you should know that with your forum name) (so quite a bad example)

I really have the impression you dislike the route just for the sake of disliking it. Or you really think mountain stages are better if they have hard HC finishes and cols have to be famous, otherwise it's a bad mountain stage.

I actually enjoy the origanality of the rumours so far. A good mix of never just combo's, not to many hard mountain top finishes and a lot of possibilities for attacking from far, ambush or just entertaining medium mountain. And still a few classics.

Probably I didn't expressed properly. Imagine Finestre 120 km from the finish line, and then 120 flat km until the finish. Nothing will happens on Finestre.

My point is the route is also important, not just the riders making the race hard.

 

[JReed27]

Probably I didn't expressed properly. Imagine Finestre 120 km from the finish line, and then 120 flat km until the finish. Nothing will happens on Finestre.

My point is the route is also important, not just the riders making the race hard.

there is nothing like that on the route. While I don't like every stage they at least give riders and teams options. I'd rather this than a route that is just variations of difficult mtfs where there is virtually no room for interesting tactics

 

[OlavEH]

The combination finestre-sestriere is the only good thing i see in this course. The combination Finestre-sestriere is great to some long range attack.

The rest of the mountain stages don't look that great for that.

A sterrato stage isn't a good thing?

What about proper medium mountain stages the two first weeks?

And that combo of climbs on the Aosta stage?

 

[snipeheem]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1855206755128500485

View: https://x.com/laflammerouge16/status/1855206755128500485

 

[pastronef]

when you think RCS can be more clown, they get clowner

 

[Gigs_98]

If the route is common knowledge within the peloton there is no way it's not gonna leak. But then usually January is way too late to announce the route of a race in May, which for many riders will be the big season goal so I wouldn't be surprised if they have given them some information.

I think this fits into the picture perfectly. Something about the first three stages was thrown into doubt, while the rest of the route is already done. But you can neither announce the route without the start so they needed to postpone while giving teams some information in order to make sure nobody will skip the race due to a lack of knowledge of the route. It's a little annoying though if we don't get any official news until January.

 

[Gigs_98]

If it's gonna be common knowledge, I'm not sure why you just put it out altogether?

But then I have no idea what the economics of a route presentation are.

You mean why they won't just put it out altogether? I would guess presenting a route without the grand depart would spark a lot of questions and make the organization look more chaotic than a late route reveal. It's an open admission that they f*cked up the planning phase of bringing the start to Albania and that they are way behind schedule in that regard. Only revealing the route to the teams has the same result for us hardcore cycling fans who spend hours on a forum discussing this stuff, but more casual fans will simply never take notice of what's going on this way.