The Giro d’Italia organisers have formally confirmed that the race will begin in Turin, Piemonte in 2024, for the fourth time in its historical past and the second time in 4 years. The total route will probably be printed on Friday this week.
As was extensively rumoured, the race will kick off on Saturday, Could 4 with a mass begin stage from Venaria Reale on the outskirts of town and end within the metropolis centre, whereas stage 2 will end on the summit of Oropa within the north of the Piemonte area.
Whereas stage 1 is ready to be a repeat of the hilly 2022 stage via Turin, however with fewer climbs, stage 2 would be the earliest main mountaintop check for the Giro d’Italia because it started in Sicily in 1989 and went up Mount Etna on its second day.
The Giro d’Italia already began in Venaria Reale in 2011 with a workforce time trial, gained by HTC-HighRoad. Ten years later in 2021 when it final started in Turin, the stage was a person time trial gained – for the second yr working – by Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers).
La Gazzetta dello Sport notes that the beginning date is precisely 75 years after the most important air tragedy on the hill of Superga, the place on Could 4th, 1949, a aircraft carrying Turin’s soccer workforce, identified regionally as Grande Torino, crashed into the climb on the outskirts of town and all 31 folks on board died. That yr’s winner, Fausto Coppi, devoted his victory to Ezio Loik, a midfielder who was on board the aircraft.
“The 107th version will probably be a homage to Grande Torino,” the paper said, and the primary stage, simply 136km lengthy, will embody the Superga climb at its mid-way level to honour their reminiscence and the anniversary of the crash. The cat. 2 Colle Magdalena, with its summit 20km from the end may nicely resolve the winner and first race chief.
The Oropa end additionally marks an anniversary, because it takes place 25 years after Marco Pantani‘s well-known victory on the Piemontese climb. Oropa was final tackled within the 2017 Giro d’Italia, with victory going to the general champion of that yr’s version, Tom Dumoulin, and with solely two cat. 3 climbs previous it, will possible be the crunch second of stage 2.
A 3rd stage will happen in Piemonte, working south from Novara to Fossano, which can possible finish in a bunch dash earlier than stage 4, beginning in Acqui Terme, takes the race out of the northwesterly area.
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Piemonte has a powerful biking historical past, with the present crop of execs hailing from the area together with Ganna, Fabio Felline, Alessandro Covi, Matteo Sobrero, and Niccolo Bonifazio. Italian biking legend and a number of Giro winners Fausto Coppi, Constance Girardengo, Giovanni Brunero, Franco Balmamion, and Giuseppe Saronni are additionally Piemontese.
Extra rumoured particulars for the 2024 route additionally appeared on Monday on Cicloweb. The race’s robust emphasis on time trialling seems to be set to proceed for an additional yr, with races towards the clock in Perugia late within the first week and one other in Desenzano in the direction of the top of the second.
Though Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) is extremely unlikely to participate in subsequent yr’s Giro for a 3rd straight yr, such a excessive variety of kilometres of time trialling – as much as 70 in complete – may entice different high specialists.
That mentioned, the Giro’s predilection for mountaineering is as soon as once more in proof: aside from the ascent of Oropa on the primary weekend, a stage up the Prati di Tivo within the Apennines is rumoured as a remaining curtain for the primary week, and ascents of the Monte Grappa climbs are additionally possible on the finish of the third.
But extra climbing may characteristic simply after the second relaxation day in Livigno, with a summit end at Monte Pana preceded by an ascent of the Stelvio, this yr’s Cima Coppi, opening up the third.
As in 2023, the race concludes with a protracted switch from the north of Italy for a remaining dash stage via the streets of Rome, subsequent yr on Sunday Could 26.
The total 2024 Giro d’Italia route is ready to be unveiled in full on October 13 within the metropolis of Trento as a part of the Gazzetta dello Sport Competition of Sport celebrations. The route of the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile, the primary to be organised by RCS, can even be revealed on October 13.
As but, no particulars have been leaked of the Giro d’Italia Donne, as it’s popularly identified, with the one present advance data being its begin and end dates of July 7-14.