The Giro d'Italia Women is embarking on a new era under the well-established RCS Sport for its first year of a four-year term. With this change comes heightened responsibility, pressure, and expectations for the organisation to fulfil its promise to raise the overall event level and improve on the shortcomings of the previous editions.
This year, the event is entering its 35th edition, and there is much to celebrate as the longest-running stage race in women's cycling.
It has historically offered the toughest courses, ten days of racing and a mountainous backdrop for the best cyclists in the world to perform, even while the previous organisers often worked with a shoe-string budget and sometimes fell short of promoting its marquee race, live-streaming and broadcasting, media communication, and safety.
When RCS Sport assumed management of the Giro d'Italia Women's event, there was relief that the race would continue in the hands of a trusted organisation, instilling confidence and excitement in its future.
The organisation has a long history of running events, including the men's Giro d'Italia, Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo, Il Lombardia, and many other smaller races, creating a near monopoly of racing in Italy.
It is anticipated that RCS Sport, leveraging its extensive experience in organizing bike races, will bring immediate stability to the Giro d'Italia Women's event and elevate it to meet, and possibly even exceed, the Women's WorldTour and Grand Tour standards.
The cycling world awaits what is expected to be an action-packed bike race from July 7 to 14, but the sport's stakeholders, including fans, riders, and teams, will also be watching to see if RCS Sport lives up to its commitment to elevating the Giro d'Italia Women.
Something for everyone
The Giro d'Italia Women has traditionally offered a varied course and that remains for this edition of the race. Even though the number of days has been reduced to eight, compared to ten, every stage will bring something new to challenge the peloton.
Starting with an individual time trial, longer than a prologue at 15.7km, it will have the feel of a traditional Grand Tour start where by the race against the clock will kick off the battle for the maglia rosa, and provide one day for the time trial specialists.
The sprinters in the peloton will be eyeing stage 2 into Volta Mantovana and stage 5 into Foligno. One intermediate sprint on each stage will cater to riders going for the maglia rossa, the leader of the points classification. Look out for Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco), Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ), Arlenis Sierra (Movistar) and Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek).
There are also several stages for the opportunists in the bunch on stage 3 into Toano, stage 4 into Urbino and possibly stage 6 into Chieti. These mid-mountain stages include challenging ascents, and all have uphill finishes that range from varying degrees of difficulty.
Riders who will look to make a move on these days could be Grace Brown (FDJ-SUEZ), Lizzie Deignan and Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek), Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ), Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (SD Worx-Protime).
Mountain points are also on offer at the top of categorised ascents on stages 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, catering to riders going for the maglia azzurra, leader of the Gran Premio della Montagna.
The final two stages will certainly provide a backdrop for those riders aiming to secure the coveted maglia rosa; stage 7's category 1 Passo Lanciano and the hors category Blockhaus, and stage 8 includes a category 1 climb over Castel del Monte before closing out the Giro d'Italia Women in L'Aquila.
No Vollering, but wide-open hunt for maglia rosa
Demi Vollering has opted not to compete at the Giro d'Italia Women and will focus on the Olympic Games and Tour de France Femmes.
The SD Worx-Protime all-rounder has enjoyed a stage-racing winning streak this season, claiming overall titles at Vuelta España Femenina, Itzulia Women, Vuelta Burgos Feminas, and Tour de Suisse Women. These four victories, combined with last year's late-season victory at Tour de Romandie, form a five-race winning streak.
Had she started the Giro d'Italia Women, she would have been the outright favourite to win the maglia rosa, but she is not the only rider to opt to skip this Grand Tour as GC rider Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) will not be on the start line, too.
The most recent editions of the Giro d'Italia Women (previously called Giro d'Italia Donne) have been dominated by Dutch riders Anna van der Breggen, who won her titles in 2015, 2017, 2020 and 2021, while Annemiek van Vleuten won her titles in 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023. Marianne Vos also won her titles in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
This year's peloton is much more open than previous years, and while Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) starts as the favourite to win the title, a race as unpredictable as the Giro d'Italia means that the battle for the maglia rosa could end up playing out across all eight stages this year.
Eight editions of the Giro d'Italia Women have been won by an Italian rider, five of those titles earned by Fabiana Lupperini, so the nation will certainly support Longo Borghini to bring the maglia rosa home.
Blockhaus x 2
The organisers of the Giro d'Italia have traditionally included iconic ascents in designing the route for the women's Grand Tour such as Zoncolan, Mortirolo and Stelvio, and this year is no different.
In fact, ASO has taken note, also offering iconic climbs as part of the first two editions of the new women's Tour de France, including La Super Planche des Belles Filles, Col du Tourmalet, and this year's route will finish atop Alpe d'Huez.
The major news from the route announcement was the addition of Blockhaus to this year's event, completed not just once but almost twice on stage 7.
The riders will first tackle the Passo Lanciano, a climb that just cuts off the final few kilometres of the Blockhaus, before taking on the full ascent.
Blockhaus, at 1,663m, is a daunting 17.7km with an average gradient of 7.8%. The challenging mountain, combined with a nearly double effort, will certainly provide the backdrop for a major GC battle ahead of the finale stage 8 in L'Aquila.
