Giro d'Italia Giro d'Italia 2025: Stage-by-stage analysis

[zlev11]

great job man, this is my favorite thread every year

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Looking forward to some stages (1-3, 8-11, 16, 20), but some of this route is just awful man. That penultimate weekend is embarrassing.

Just fyi @Devil's Elbow , there is no stage profile for stage 8 . Thanks for your hard work mate

 

[Cassirer]

After 2024 I had some serious cycling fan fatigue and have not watched much racing in 2025, but I am looking forward to il giro and thanks to @Devil's Elbow I even know what's going on!

 

[Netserk]

Non-grainy:

 

[YavorD]

After I read the whole thread now, it seems even more detailed that previously.
Really a great read.
Once again, impressive job.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I can talk myself into liking some stuff (stage 17 being easier means that attacks on stage 16 are more realistic, stage 8 has a nice final and the whole stage 7 to stage 9 sequence is good) but as soon as I see stage 14 and stage 15 I'm like "kill it with fire!"

 

[Red Rick]

And with that, my biggest-ever project is over. The Word file I’m working in sits just shy of 27000 words. I regret nothing. I hope you all enjoyed it too.

I absolutely did. You nailed it. Thanks a lot.

Some nitpicky comments @Devil's Elbow

- You typo'd Rujano podiuming the Giro in 2025, this should be 2005
- The Castelraimondo stage profile got replaced by another Tagliacozzo finish map

 

[E_F_]

I straight up dislike this route.

 

[Cycling111]

I didn't remember the course being so bad.
The Coppi mountain is the lowest in years, and the only one above 2,000 meters.

Last year there were more than 70km of ITT.

Grappa stage

 

[QueenStagiaire]

I know, I know, quality over quantity, but there‘s just too few GC stages. I guess the expectations being low is good for my feeling during the race, though.

 

[zlev11]

it's really insane how badly they screwed up the Grappa stage and the Bormio stage. could've been an excellent route if those stages were what they could've been.

 

[Red Rick]

it's really insane how badly they screwed up the Grappa stage and the Bormio stage. could've been an excellent route if those stages were what they could've been.

If those 2 were great, it would still be ridiculously backloaded.

If anything I think the route has a lot of ingredients to make the race worse than than 2023.

 

[zlev11]

If those 2 were great, it would still be ridiculously backloaded.

If anything I think the route has a lot of ingredients to make the race worse than than 2023.

i want to see them do Finestre-Sestriere in the 2nd week, or at the end of the 1st week (stage 9) sometime in the future

 

[Netserk]

If those 2 were great, it would still be ridiculously backloaded.

If anything I think the route has a lot of ingredients to make the race worse than than 2023.

Double Sestriere after Finestre would make it less back-loaded.

 

[Gigs_98]

If those 2 were great, it would still be ridiculously backloaded.

If anything I think the route has a lot of ingredients to make the race worse than than 2023.

Make the Grappa stage good and add one mountain stage early in the race and I don't even care about the Bormio stage anymore. I think 4 proper mountain stages in the last week are clearly too many so I don't mind stage 17 not being a gc stage. I would prefer it to be a medium mountain stage or just not include Mortirolo east (honestly I'm mostly annoyed by people making a big deal of this stage because the most bang average alpine climb happens to be the descent of a legendary climb and therefore the two share one name), but I think a breakaway stage without a great opportunity for gc action can be a perfectly fine stage design.

So yeah, use Bocca di Forca and the 2017 Asiago finish, and maybe have a Pradaccio-Abetone finish and you already have a massive improvement. I still think that route would be in great danger of people softpedalling it but at least there is a chance for something interesting to happen from far out.

 

[Red Rick]

Make the Grappa stage good and add one mountain stage early in the race and I don't even care about the Bormio stage anymore. I think 4 proper mountain stages in the last week are clearly too many so I don't mind stage 17 not being a gc stage. I would prefer it to be a medium mountain stage or just not include Mortirolo east (honestly I'm mostly annoyed by people making a big deal of this stage because the most bang average alpine climb happens to be the descent of a legendary climb and therefore the two share one name), but I think a breakaway stage without a great opportunity for gc action can be a perfectly fine stage design.

So yeah, use Bocca di Forca and the 2017 Asiago finish, and maybe have a Pradaccio-Abetone finish and you already have a massive improvement. I still think that route would be in great danger of people softpedalling it but at least there is a chance for something interesting to happen from far out.

It really does the "don't do too many MTF in the 3rd week" without doing the thing you're supposed to do instead of the MTFs.

I think Tagliacozzo is also just disappointing for what it needs to do, the 400m flat at the very end piss me off disproportionately, etc.

But with the first 2 weeks you cannot change that much to make it better or put MTFs in if you wanna finish in the samep laces. Realistically you can do a 10 minute murito finish in Nova Gorica and put a Cat 1 at 15km to go on stage 8, but that requires approaching from the north.

The Giro just needs to put in more decent MTFs in the south and then leave them out in the Alps, but they never do it outside of Blockhaus.

 

[E_F_]

I know, I know, quality over quantity, but there‘s just too few GC stages. I guess the expectations being low is good for my feeling during the race, though.

Well since my fear is that the GC will be settled without any real action, I guess I won't be disappointed.

 

[OlavEH]

Make the Grappa stage good and add one mountain stage early in the race and I don't even care about the Bormio stage anymore. I think 4 proper mountain stages in the last week are clearly too many so I don't mind stage 17

Then it would have been better to just skip the Grappa stage and re-design the Bormio stage to include Gavia.

The Giro just needs to put in more decent MTFs in the south and then leave them out in the Alps, but they never do it outside of Blockhaus

That is correct, but I'm not sure if there are many alternatives. Terminillo and Vesuvio of a certain difficulty. Something in the Marche region (Catria, Petrano). Not much more than that I think.

The more annoying thing is that they use San Pellegrino in Alpe in a way that may be mostly useless.

 

[Red Rick]

Then it would have been better to just skip the Grappa stage and re-design the Bormio stage to include Gavia.


That is correct, but I'm not sure if there are many alternatives. Terminillo and Vesuvio of a certain difficulty. Something in the Marche region (Catria, Petrano). Not much more than that I think.

The more annoying thing is that they use San Pellegrino in Alpe in a way that may be mostly useless.

There are many climbs that are hard enough that can function as a MTF, or that are close enough to decently sized towns so they can finish not long after the descent.

But from what I understand RCS demand more $$ for a GC stage and most places further south can't or won't pay for it. Especially considering some pretty good climbs get used as MTFs in the Tirreno multiple times without being used in the Giro other than a climb in the middle of a breakaway stage like Sassotetto. Then finally, Blockhaus seems to be the only one regularly used in the Giro, but we don't see Tirreno staples like Chieti as finishes either, so I guess we can't have Maialetta + Guardiagrele either.

 

[OlavEH]

There are many climbs that are hard enough that can function as a MTF, or that are close enough to decently sized towns so they can finish not long after the descent.

But from what I understand RCS demand more $$ for a GC stage and most places further south can't or won't pay for it. Especially considering some pretty good climbs get used as MTFs in the Tirreno multiple times without being used in the Giro other than a climb in the middle of a breakaway stage like Sassotetto. Then finally, Blockhaus seems to be the only one regularly used in the Giro, but we don't see Tirreno staples like Chieti as finishes either, so I guess we can't have Maialetta + Guardiagrele either.

With the finish in Rome and both a sterrato stage and a stage including San Pellegrino in Alpe. And a Finestre-Sestriere stage, they should really have done what I think @railmix suggested once. A finish like this:

Stage 20: Sterrato stage
Stage 21: Rome finish

Here you could also add a stage 19 with San Pellegrino in Alpe - Abetone.

And Finestre - Sestriere should have been the last stage in the penultimate week, proably stage 15. That would have facilitated one of the best weeks in Giro history!

 

[Netserk]

I can talk myself into liking some stuff (stage 17 being easier means that attacks on stage 16 are more realistic, stage 8 has a nice final and the whole stage 7 to stage 9 sequence is good) but as soon as I see stage 14 and stage 15 I'm like "kill it with fire!"

Best I can do about the penultimate weekend, somewhat taking the (self-imposed) constraints of RCS into account:

Stage 14: Treviso > Asiago
Stage 15: Fiume Veneto > Nova Gorica

The highest-impact minimalist changes I'd make though are double Sestriere and a longer second ITT (10-15 km extra would help a lot).

 

[Samu Cuenca]

No means no, but who knows in this case?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1920778044781871453

View: https://x.com/friebos/status/1920778044781871453

 

[Red Rick]

Best I can do about the penultimate weekend, somewhat taking the (self-imposed) constraints of RCS into account:

Stage 14: Treviso > Asiago
Stage 15: Fiume Veneto > Nova Gorica

The highest-impact minimalist changes I'd make though are double Sestriere and a longer second ITT (10-15 km extra would help a lot).

You want double Sestriere after Finestre or just Sestriere/Finestre/Sestriere?

 

[Netserk]

You want double Sestriere after Finestre or just Sestriere/Finestre/Sestriere?

After Finestre. Less of a gimme for the strongest climber.

 

[Red Rick]

After Finestre. Less of a gimme for the strongest climber.

This Giro has so many of them gimmes already.....