All Eyes on the Route Reveal for the Revamped Giro D’Italia Women
One of the highlights of bike racing’s offseason is speculating on next year’s courses. Which mountains will the peloton climb during the 2024 season? Which city centers will they sprint into? Any gravel, or, in the case of the Giro d’Italia, white chalk roads planned for this year’s course?
Well, for the 2024 Giro d’Italia Women, as it’s now called, such speculation only has about one more week to flourish.
Because the route for one of next year’s marquee stage races is set to be revealed next Tuesday at a ceremony in Milan, with many speculating that it will start somewhere in the country’s northeast and finish in the southern region of Abruzzo, with a late mountain stage likely playing a decisive factor.
According to Giro d’Italian Women (formerly the Giro d’Italia Donne) organizers RCS Sport, the route will be unveiled next December 12 at 3:30pm local (9:30am eastern) on the top floor of Milan’s Pirelli Tower, one of the fashion capital’s landmark skyscrapers. The presentation will be live streamed on the official race website, as well as on a variety of other sites, including the Giro’s official YouTube channel.
RCS Sport, who oversees Italy’s most important races—the men’s Giro d’Italia, Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico, Il Lombardia, and Milan-San Remo, along with scores of lower profile races—took over control of the race from PMG Sport/Starlight earlier this year.
PMG Sport/Starlight controlled the race in 2021 through 2023 after taking over from longtime organizer Giuseppe Rivolta. In February, RCS emerged as the only bidder for the race after the Italian Cycling Federation designed a new bidding process in order to find a new race organizer.
RCS’s contract is set to run from 2024 through 2027.
In June, the Giro d’Italia Donne came perilously close to being canceled due to a funding shortfall. Italian broadcasting company Rai came through at the eleventh hour, however, saving the race with just days to spare.
Next year’s route was originally slated to be unveiled beside the men’s 2024 route in October, but RCS was forced to delay the presentation due to late-stage changes in the route. However, RCS did unveil a newly designed trophy, called the Trofeo Senza Fine, or “Endless Trophy,” at the October event.
Of the trophy, nine-time Italian national champion and Lidl-Trek rider Elisa Longo Borghini said, “I hope one day to lift it as a proud Italian winner, perhaps wearing the Italian national champion’s jersey.”
Though the length of this year’s race is yet to be confirmed, race director Mauro Vegni has made it clear that RCS plans to grow the race from its current iteration of eight stages back to a longer race.
“We hope to increase the race from eight days of racing back up to 11, perhaps with a rest day and even a Grande Partenza outside Italy. We’re working to make the Giro Women bigger and better year after year. 2024 is just the start,” Vegni said.
The race will also be pushed back in the calendar, with its eight stages being run from July 7 through July 14. Though its dates overlap with the men’s 2024 Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia Women’s stages are slated to finish earlier in the day.
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