This year’s Giro d’Italia Femminile – the Giro Donne – was presented at the Diadora Museum of Sport in Caerano San Marco, in Treviso province on Saturday. This year’s corsa rosa for women will cover a total of 921.9km over ten stages, entirely in the northern area of the country, in a real route for climbers.
Eschewing the usual prologue, the race begins with a short flat road stage, finishing in the city of Trieste, in the extreme north east of the country. Moving slightly south and east to the Veneto region, the race will offer more opportunities for the sprinters. Stage 2 will cross the Prosecco wine region on the way to the cycling mad town of Riese Pio X, the only town in Italy to be named after a Pope. This is also the region of World champion Tatiana Guderzo.
Stage 3 will be an almost entirely flat time trial into the picturesque town of Montebelluna, while stage 4 is a similarly flat road stage in the valley of the river Po.
After transferring to the north west of the country and the region of Piemonte, the stages get steadily hillier; Stage 5 consists of three rolling laps of the Lago d’Orta. The course then moves to the Lombardia region for another rolling stage. Starting in Gallarate Stage 6 passes through Varese, the venue of the 2008 World Championships, and Cittiglio, home of the Trofeo Binda World Cup race, before finishing in Arcisate, hometown of double Worlds medallist Noemi Cantele.
Climbing really begins on stage 7 as the race crosses the Pian del Tivano and the Madonna del Ghisallo between Como and Albese con Cassano, home and final resting place of 1992 Olympic champion Fabio Casartelli who died after crashing in the 1995 Tour de France.
From here stage 8 crosses a corner of Switzerland, via St Moritz, on its way to Livigno where the climbing really begins.
Stage 9, the penultimate stage, is just 68.5km long, but will prove to be the toughest stage in a women’s race in many years. The stage features just one climb, but it is a mountaintop finish at the summit of the monstrous 2725m Passo dello Stelvio.
The final stage, for those that have survived the day before, returns to the flatlands for a traditional sprinter’s finale. Starting with three laps of the Monza auto circuit, the home of the Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix, the stage follows a mainly flat circuit before finishing in the town of Monza itself.
Stages:
Stage 1 – July 2: Muggia – Trieste 59km
Stage 2 – July 3: Sacile – Riese Pio X 130km
Stage 3 – July 4: Caerano San Marco – Biadene di Montebelluna 16.9km ITT
Stage 4 – July 5: Ficarolo – Lendinara 90km
Stage 5 – July 6: Orta San Giulio – Pettenasco 122km
Stage 6 – July 7: Gallarate – Arcisate 116.7km
Stage 7 – July 8: Como – Albese con Cassano 110.8km
Stage 8 – July 9: Chiavenna – Livigno 93km
Stage 9 – July 10: Livigno – Passo dello Stelvio 68.5km
Stage 10 – July 11: Autodromo di Monza – Monza 115km
Past winners:
2009 Claudia Häusler (Ger)
2008 Fabiana Luperini (Ita)
2007 Edita Pucinskaite (Lit)
2006 Edita Pucinskaite (Lit)
2005 Nicole Brändli (Swi)
2004 Nicole Cooke (GBr)
2003 Nicole Brändli (Swi)
2002 Svetlana Boubnenkova (Rus)
2001 Nicole Brändli (Swi)
2000 Joane Somarriba (Spa)
1999 Joane Somarriba (Spa)
1998 Fabiana Luperini (Ita)
1997 Fabiana Luperini (Ita)
1996 Fabiana Luperini (Ita)
1995 Fabiana Luperini (Ita)
1994 Michela Fanini (Ita)
1993 Llavaska Lenka (Svk)
1992 No race
1991 No race
1990 Catherine Marsal (Fra)
1989 Roberta Bonanomi (Ita)
1988 Maria Canins (Ita)