The 2026 Giro d’Italia is the 109th edition of the race and one of the biggest Grand Tours in professional cycling.

📅 Dates

• 8 May – 31 May 2026

• 21 stages over three weeks

🚩 Start & Finish

• Start (Grande Partenza): Nessebar, Bulgaria

• Finish: Rome, Italy

This is notable because it’s the first time the Giro starts in Bulgaria.

🗺️ Route highlights

• ~3,459 km total distance

• ~49,000–50,000 m of climbing (very mountainous edition)

• 1 individual time trial (~40 km)

• Multiple mountain summit finishes (Alps, Apennines, Dolomites)

Key climbs/finishes include:

• Blockhaus (early major test)

• Aosta Valley stages

• Swiss mountain stage (Carì)

• Dolomites decisive stages (including Piancavallo finish)

• Final sprint stage in Rome

🚴 Teams

• 23 teams total

  • 18 UCI WorldTeams

  • 5 ProTeams (including wildcard entries)

Big teams include:

• UAE Team Emirates XRG

• INEOS Grenadiers

• Visma | Lease a Bike

• Red Bull–BORA–Hansgrohe

• Soudal Quick-Step

⭐ Why this edition is special

• Very climb-heavy route (one of the hardest recent editions)

• Only one time trial, so climbers are favored

• Early start outside Italy (Bulgaria)

• Very late decisive mountain stages → likely GC battle until the final week