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

[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)

 

[Red Rick]

It doesn’t make sense to attack on Finestre?

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

 

[Red Rick]

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

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

Get hyped mother**********

Lopez, Pozzovivo and Froome absolutely have to go for it on the Finestre. They don't really have a choice. So it will happen.

I expect that the fight for the breakaway will be insane, but also that all but the better climbing domestiques will be roasted bringing bad breakaways back, so if the pace is high on the Finestre, the breakaway might be caught way before the top, so by the time the favourites get there, almost no domestiques will be left.

Re: Re:


The thing is that if the Finestre is ridden hard there's no such thing as big groups anymore.

 

[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.

 

[YavorD]

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.

Hardly anyone attacks on Giau before Tre Cime and with the MTT on the next day. I think attack on Mortirolo next year is about as likely.
And Croix de Coeur is maybe less likely than Grappa as well (okay, maybe I'm being negative)

Fair point about Cibiana though, but that was still the first of a hard finale.

 

[OlavEH]

Hasn't it been scheduled and then removed because of too much snow?

It may be. I can't remeber just now. But there are several other 2600+ climbs being used in the Giro. So one would think that Gavia could be used. The first option should be Carlo Magno-Tonale-Gavia. And if Gavia couldn't be used because of snow, they could have used Mortirolo.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

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.

It was scheduled in 2019. This year it was necessary for a good Bormio stage and the way the winter in the Alps has been going, the road could at least be cleared, so it‘s sad to not see an attempt.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

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?

It would have been used in 2019 until it got cancelled due to snow, then in 2020 they made the right call in doing Stelvio instead, in 2021 they didn’t go anywhere near it, in 2022 they did the dumbest Aprica stage ever instead (but the big problem there was not the lack of Gavia), in 2023 they didn’t go anywhere near it and in 2024 they scammed their audience with the presented route over Forcola di Livigno that they never actually seemed to plan on following through on (but would have been better than going via Gavia had they actually done it). So this is really the first year since then where using Gavia would have been a big improvement over the actually-presented stage, and even then I would have preferred Monte Padrio - Mortirolo from either the classic side or the 2012 route from Tovo - drag up the valley into Bormio.

 

[OlavEH]

I mapped an alternative version of the Asiago stage. I actually managed to add another tough climb (Malga Budui), doing the Monte Grappa climb tougher by using Bocca di Forca and still having a 20 km shorter stage. The design choices for this stage is just absurdly bad. Adding distance to do the easiest ascent of Grappa. And then doing a descent that adds more flat between Grappa and the climb to Foza. That is just insane!

 

[Devil's Elbow]

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.

To be fair I don’t think Roglic-Thomas-Almeida would have done anything on this Finestre stage.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I really like the first half, despite how short the ITTs are.

I mean, that's the only positive thing about this Giro. Probably the biggest turd that Vegni has laid since 2014.

 

[Forever The Best]

To be fair I don’t think Roglic-Thomas-Almeida would have done anything on this Finestre stage.

Lol true. People should just act like Tre Cime has not been climbed since 2013.

 

[tobydawq]

To be fair I don’t think Roglic-Thomas-Almeida would have done anything on this Finestre stage.

Without the Lussari TT looming and with Thomas in pink, Roglic would have tried.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I mapped an alternative version of the Asiago stage. I actually managed to add another tough climb (Malga Budui), doing the Monte Grappa climb tougher by using Bocca di Forca and still having a 20 km shorter stage. The design choices for this stage is just absurdly bad. Adding distance to do the easiest ascent of Grappa. And then doing a descent that adds more flat between Grappa and the climb to Foza. That is just insane!

You can do sooo many better stages with it, but RCS are just as lazy as it gets.
I hope the super neutered Bormio stage means that riders will actually have the balls to attack on stage 16.
*Sees Roglic as the pre-race favourite* Ok, as long as Bufalo Thomas doesn't also show up at least the UAE guys should try to attack him with their numbers.

 

[wansteadimp]

Stage 4 - I can't believe they've missed the opportunity to bait some echelon action. They could have gone straight down the Adriatic coast to Lecce hopping for cross winds off the sea but no just go down the centre of the Salentine peninsula miles from the sea.

 

[Red Rick]

It would have been used in 2019 until it got cancelled due to snow, then in 2020 they made the right call in doing Stelvio instead, in 2021 they didn’t go anywhere near it, in 2022 they did the dumbest Aprica stage ever instead (but the big problem there was not the lack of Gavia), in 2023 they didn’t go anywhere near it and in 2024 they scammed their audience with the presented route over Forcola di Livigno that they never actually seemed to plan on following through on (but would have been better than going via Gavia had they actually done it). So this is really the first year since then where using Gavia would have been a big improvement over the actually-presented stage, and even then I would have preferred Monte Padrio - Mortirolo from either the classic side or the 2012 route from Tovo - drag up the valley into Bormio.

the extra climb up to Motte is just the seasoning on the *** cake.

If you really wanna be minimalistic in designing that stage, you just take the recta Contador road, and once descended you just go straight to Bormio without detours and it's still better than this one.