Giro d'Italia Rate the 2026 Giro d'Italia route

[The fridge in the blue trees]

Best parcours for a while. It's not overly backloaded. as has been the case in the last years.
Aosta is very short, prefer it longer, but by having nothing at all the next day, there should be action. With Pila being long probably only will really take off on the final climb, but that's good enough. Differences will be made, even if it's short, they will have quite a few climbs in the legs when they hit Pila.
Cari at Junior level distance, some tiny hills early, but again, due to the placement, nothing the next day again we can expect things happening in the final climb. Then the Giau stage, maybe Giau a bit far from the finish, maybe the steepness of the final climb a bit too inviting to wait, but normally on the Giau stuff happens almost automatically. And the final climb being short helps early attacks, waiting for that might be too late. And while Piancavallo of course is the next day, it's not somehting like Finestre or Fedaia or the stupid MTT a few years back that castrates the stage before it, so expect the Giau stage to deliver too finally. The placement of the stages is very good, makes for some weird transfers, and ok, 2 rather pointless stages between Cari and Alleghe, sprints in the first week maybe, here it will just be 2 escape stages... but generally the placement is good. Blockhaus early, ok, could be even earlier IMO, but early enough, long, not too much before, but fits. Late for an early climb, but hard for an early climb too. Nice. Less convinced by Corno alle Scale, but ok, just one more mountain top arrival but here probably minimal differences.
Less altitude meters than in the past, but by placing the climbs in much better places than usual lately, the altitude meters are used more effectively than lately. 2023, the tre Cime stage, where very predictably everything was neutralized by a) the final climb and b) the MTT the next day. Won't happen here. I think it's a good parcours,

 

[Berniece]

POV: you didn't watch the 2011 Giro.

Also, so long as Vingegaard is still a level above everyone not named Pogacar, the GC battle is going to be bad no matter what the route is if he starts. So there's little point in optimising for that scenario, and insofar as there is a point it's an argument for cutting down on the quantity of mountain stages, not the quality.

Finally, if Vingegaard starts and is not that good by his standards, then a soft route will actively hamper the race, as proven by the Vuelta this year.

I believe the racers make the race anyway, and this course invites you to race. Instead of doing a sky train and Vingegaard goes when he wants

 

[hrotha]

Never ceases to amaze me that people come to the "rate the route" thread to say the route doesn't matter

 

[Sciatic]

Never ceases to amaze me that people come to the "rate the route" thread to say the route doesn't matter

Well, there's not much else to talk about this time of year . . .

 

[aphronesis]

Never ceases to amaze me that people come to the "rate the route" thread to say the route doesn't matter

Maybe the criteria for “matter” differ also. There’s some talk about ‘11 also that puts a double in perspective. But that was a different moment. Like post cold war.