Giro d'Italia

By CyclingWeekly Staff 2021-05-07T17:02:09Z

Dates: Saturday, May 8-30

Stages: 21

Length: 3450km

Start: Torino (Turin)

Finish: Milan

TV Coverage (UK): Eurosport, GCN Race Pass

Giro d'Italia 2021

Tao Geoghegan-Hart celebrates winning the Giro d'Italia 2020 with his team (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images,)

The Giro d'Italia is the first of the Grand Tours, with the other three-week long races being the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. The riders tackle 21 stages around Italy with the event usually taking place in May.

Usually, the race takes place entirely within the borders of Italy but the 'Corsa Rosa' has held stages in other nations over its 103 editions. These include the likes of Denmark, Israel and France. 2021 is going to be the race's 104th edition.

This year, the race does take place entirely in Italy with it starting and finishing in the northwest of the country before snaking around almost all of the mainland during its 3450km voyage.

Italy's terrain is very varied and the race has taken on and made names of some of its best mountains like the Monte Zonccolan, Passo dello Stelvio, Colle dell'Angnello, Passo di Mortirolo and Passo Gavia as well as many more besides.

It is often the individual time trials that decide the race, though. In 2021 the race is bookended by the tests against the clock with one of stage one in Turin and one on stage 21 into Milan.

But you have to be in it to win it and anybody who hopes to take the pink jersey at the Giro will need to get through several sprint stages and medium mountain stages. These also give a chance for stage wins that can spark amazing careers

Last year's event was exceptionally close after Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers and Jai Hindley (Team DSM) went into the final time trial on exactly the same time.

Geoghegan Hart eventually came out on top winning the overall by 39 seconds over the Australian rider after a very strong time trial to close the race.

The British rider went into the race to support Geraint Thomas, who crashed out early on after hitting a bottle. Last year's edition introduced a whole new cast of Grand Tour riders with Geoghegan Hart, Hindley and João Almeida (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) looking like potential future winners.

Giro d'Italia 2021 route

Riders climb the Stelvio during stage 18 of the 2020 Giro d'Italia (Photo by LUCA BETTINI/AFP via Getty Images)

Here is the route of the Giro d'Italia 2021, a total of eight mountain stages, two time trials, four flat sprint stages and six hilly days, the winner will need to be able to face it all to come out on top. For more information on each stage, go to our route page.

Stage	Date	Start	Finish	Distance	Terrain
1	Sat May 8	Torino	Torino	9km	ITT
2	Sun May 9	Stupinigi	Novara	173km	Flat
3	Mon May 10	Biella	Canale	187km	Hilly
4	Tue May 11	Piacenza	Sestola	185km	Hilly
5	Wed May 12	Modena	Cattolica	171km	Flat
6	Thu May 13	Grotte di Frassassi	Ascoli Piceno	150km	Mountain
7	Fri May 14	Notaresco	Temoli	178km	Flat
8	Sat May 15	Foggia	Guardia Sanframondi	173km	Mountain
9	Sun May 16	Castel di Sangro	Campo Felice	160km	Mountain
Rest day	Mon May 17
10	Tue May 18	L'Aquila	Foligno	140km	Hilly
11	Wed May 19	Perugia	Montalcino	163km	Hilly
12	Thu May 20	Siena	Bagno di Romagna	209km	Hilly
13	Fri May 21	Ravenna	Verona	197km	Flat
14	Sat May 22	Cittadella	Monte Zoncolan	205km	Mountain
15	Sun May 23	Grado	Gorizia	145km	Hilly
Rest day	Mon May 24
16	Tue May 25	Sacille	Cortina d’Ampezzo	212km	Mountain
17	Wed May 26	Canazei	Sega di Ala	193km	Mountain
18	Thu May 27	Rovereto	Stradella	228km	Flat
19	Fri May 28	Abbiategrasso	Alpe di Mera Valsesia	178km	Mountain
20	Sat May 29	Verbania	Alpe Motta	165km	Mountain
21	Sun May 30	Senago	Milan	29.4km	ITT