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

[zlev11]

Like seriously, what's the point of the Bormio stage, they haven't even bothered to use the Contador side. So many amazing route possibilities and they give us that sh*t!!

because all the little piggies will eat up this slop either way. rob hatch will be telling us all month about what an epic route it is.

 

[YavorD]

Time for someone to make "Worst year for atheGT routes" thread?

We can actually combine it with "the best year"

 

[OlavEH]

The route is okay at least. Finestre is back, the sterrato stage is good and same for the Castelnovo ne' Monte stage. The rest of the mountain stages are very "meh". Especially the Bormio stage. What the heck is the point with that one.

 

[ashhutch1997]

The Castelraimondo stage is a joke, the Crispiero is RIGHT there, but they just bypass it.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Finestre, the sterrato stage, the reduced amount of easy sprints (only 4, they’ll have to work for it if they want more), the refusal to rely on big MTFs and the San Valentino stage make for a clear improvement over 2022-2024 and a much better route than the Tour and Vuelta have managed, That being said, it’s disappointing that the tendency to make absolutely infuriating decisions is still very much there. Castelraimondo and Champoluc are a bit disappointing on their own and the decision to simultaneously not have a TT in Rome and to have a meme-length main TT is bad enough, but the Bormio and Asiago stages are you should get fired from your job, preferably out of a cannon territory. Especially because it’s not like there’s a huge amount of big mountain stages in the first place. Just like in 2022, this could have been a stellar route if they’d just done sensible things with all their stage hosts, now it’s ‘only’ a 7/10 for me.

 

[OlavEH]

the Crispiero is RIGHT there, but they just bypass it.

Which climb is this?

 

[Peyroteo94]

Are they trying to persuade Vingegaard? Awful third week

 

[Forever The Best]

Finestre, the sterrato stage, the reduced amount of easy sprints (only 4, they’ll have to work for it if they want more), the refusal to rely on big MTFs and the San Valentino stage make for a clear improvement over 2022-2024 and a much better route than the Tour and Vuelta have managed, That being said, it’s disappointing that the tendency to make absolutely infuriating decisions is still very much there. Castelraimondo and Champoluc are a bit disappointing on their own and the decision to simultaneously not have a TT in Rome and to have a meme-length main TT is bad enough, but the Bormio and Asiago stages are you should get fired from your job, preferably out of a cannon territory. Especially because it’s not like there’s a huge amount of big mountain stages in the first place. Just like in 2022, this could have been a stellar route if they’d just done sensible things with all their stage hosts, now it’s ‘only’ a 7/10 for me.

I think 2023 was good apart from the ridiculous MTT at the end. The race was awful partly due to Evenepoel and TGH retiring and leaving Roglic (who I think had crashed mid race), Thomas and Almeida to fight.

 

[zlev11]

there's two places for a "long range attack" and they are:
santa barbara (very unlikely)
and finestre (not really very long range)

 

[OlavEH]

The point of limiting big MTFs is to induce action on well designed mountain stages that don't have a MTF. Problem is there's no well designed mountain stages where attacking makes any sense

Exactly. This year's Giro contains 3 stage finish locations (in addition to Finestre/Sestriere) which are from good to excellent if they want to create well designed stages suitable for long range action. I'm not expecting them to take full advantage of all these 3, but at least 1 or 2. Especially the Bormio stage is immensely disappointing.

 

[Forever The Best]

The point of limiting big MTFs is to induce action on well designed mountain stages that don't have a MTF. Problem is there's no well designed mountain stages where attacking makes any sense.

Sometimes, less is just less.

Stage 20 is obviously good. Stage 16 and 19 are acceptable too I'd say.
Anyways, what an awful route overall. Strade Bianche stage is good though.
Asiago stage is one of the worst I've seen considering the start and finish towns. Bormio too.

 

[Cookster15]

Are they trying to persuade Vingegaard? Awful third week

That’s what I initially thought - an easy Giro route like 2024 to entice Vingo to replicate Pog’s Giro/Tour double.

But I doubt Vingo and Visma will want to risk not beating Pogacar in July by doing the Giro - no matter how easy it looks on paper.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

The point of limiting big MTFs is to induce action on well designed mountain stages that don't have a MTF. Problem is there's no well designed mountain stages where attacking makes any sense.

Sometimes, less is just less.

It doesn’t make sense to attack on Finestre?

 

[tobydawq]

At least the presentation was long. As well as the wait for the presentation.

Maybe to compensate for the tendency of shorter stages?

 

[tobydawq]

It doesn’t make sense to attack on Finestre?

Rick wouldn't believe what happened there in 2018 if you told him.

 

[OlavEH]

and finestre (not really very long range)

The peloton wil be shattered halfway into Finestre. That will be 35 km from the finish line and prompt probably one and a half hour of action. That is more than 98 % of all GT stages. Finestre-Sestriere is probably the best climb and combo if climbs in cycling. Impossible to be anything other than satisfied with this.

 

[YavorD]

I think 2023 was good apart from the ridiculous MTT at the end. The race was awful partly due to Evenepoel and TGH retiring and leaving Roglic (who I think had crashed mid race) Thomas and Almeida to fight.

I used tonlike it initially but the route was overly relying on the MTF's (admitting, the mountain stages were hard).
Croix De Coeur was nice but noone in his right mind attacks there with the valley and Crans Montana as MTF in stage 12. And Crans Montana is just week.
The final triplet could've been good if the slapped the position of the MTT and stage Zoldo Alto stage but as it was the sequence was just horrible.

Yes, the small gaps after the TT's had huge impact over the race bit in general it wasn't a route allowing for many long range attacks.

 

[Forever The Best]

I used tonlike it initially but the route was overly relying on the MTF's (admitting, the mountain stages were hard).
Croix De Coeur was nice but noone in his right mind attacks there with the valley and Crans Montana as MTF in stage 12. And Crans Montana is just week.
The final triplet could've been good if the slapped the position of the MTT and stage Zoldo Alto stage but as it was the sequence was just horrible.

Yes, the small gaps after the TT's had huge impact over the race bit in general it wasn't a route allowing for many long range attacks.

Yeah I generally agree but at least there was more chance to make a big attack if someone wanted to. Route would have been much better without that MTT though. Racing would have likely still been bad with those riders but not that bad (Roglic would have needed to attack obviously instead of waiting for MTT)

 

[YavorD]

Yeah I generally agree but at least there was more chance to make a big attack if someone wanted to. Route would have been much better without that MTT though. Racing would have likely still been bad with those riders but not that bad (Roglic would have needed to attack obviously instead of waiting for MTT)

Where?

 

[OlavEH]

Btw, regarding the Bormio stage. Have they stopped using Gavia? It hasn't been used since 2014. Is the road or descent considered to be too bad?

 

[Forever The Best]

Where?

Passo Giau. Croix de Coeur as an outside one. Val di Zoldo stage was good too as a design (Cibiana 26 km from the line before Coi-Val di Zoldo).
Obviously the MTT meant that the riders didn't have much incentive to attack there but the chance was there.

 

[tobydawq]

Apart from the fact that in 2018 everyone was crying about bad Finestre design and I was saying attacking Finestre was perfectly viable.

So why does this not apply here? Or is it just too close to the finish for you to consider an attack there 'early'?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Finestre is Finestre. It's the best climb no matter what you do. It's also the final GC day so riders who are 1 minute down can always wait for the last day instead of attacking Col du Joux, Mortirolo, Santa Barbara or Monte Grappa.

And for all the talk about no mountain finishes ruining the fun, the one MTF we do get does exactly that, ruin a better penultimate climb and ruining one of the better stages in the Giro

Unlike the penultimate climbs of basically every Tour mountain stage this year, Santa Barbara is an entirely viable place to launch a big attack if anyone actually wants to. That stage fundamentally does exactly what you want your third-week mountain stage before the next day’s mountain stage to be doing, and the next day’s mountain stage being a monstrosity at least improves the odds of attacks on Santa Barbara. In a world where Pogacar and Vingegaard are racing each other, on that stage, at that point in the race, in a competitive GC battle, I would bet my left kidney on the race blowing up on Santa Barbara. We’ll see how the actual field feels about it.

 

[Forever The Best]

Apart from the fact that in 2018 everyone was crying about bad Finestre design and I was saying attacking Finestre was perfectly viable.

To be fair the way the race went also made it very viable (and a necessity). Yates fading, Froome getting to peak shape. I don't think Roglic-Thomas-Almeida would have done anything there.

 

[tobydawq]

Btw, regarding the Bormio stage. Have they stopped using Gavia? It hasn't been used since 2014. Is the road or descent considered to be too bad?

Hasn't it been scheduled and then removed because of too much snow? And in 2014, its use wasn't really a situation with a lot of happy memories.