RCS Sport has announced that the Giro d’Italia will have a foreign start in 2022, while Milano-Torino will shift to March and take place between Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo.
The location of the Grande Partenza has yet to be announced, but RCS Sport has announced that the 2022 Giro will begin on Friday, May 6 to create an extra rest day to facilitate the transfer to Italy. “The 2022 Corsa Rosa will begin on Friday 6 May and observe an additional rest day, for a total of 3 in the race, given the 105th edition’s Grande Partenza from abroad,” RCS Sport said.
Budapest was originally slated to host the start in 2020 but the coronavirus pandemic forced the postponement of the race and the revision of the route, with the start instead taking place in Sicily. While a Hungarian Grande Partenza remains a possibility, Slovakia has also been linked with a bid to host the start of the race.
Speaking to Cyclingnews ahead of this year’s Giro, race director Mauro Vegni explained that RCS Sport had plans for several foreign starts in the coming years that had been put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“There were foreign starts planned and there still are, but they’re on standby,” Vegni said. “For next year, we’ll see what’s happening by October and whether the vaccine is having an effect. Let’s hope so.”
The Giro’s last foreign start was in 2018, when the race began in Israel, and the race had also set out from the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland during the preceding decade.
In 2022, all three Grand Tours are set to have foreign starts, with the Tour de France starting from Copenhagen and the Vuelta a España setting out from Utrecht.
RCS Sport also announced a revision to its usual slate of spring races for 2022, with Milano-Torino moving to its original March slot where it will now serve as a prelude to Milan-San Remo.
The spring series of races begins with Strade Bianche on March 5, followed by Tirreno-Adriatico (March 7-13), Milano-Torino (March 16) and Milan-San Remo (March 19). The Giro di Sicilia, meanwhile, will take place from April 12-15 and serve as a warm-up for the Giro d’Italia. Gran Piemonte will remain in the Autumn on October 6, two days before Il Lombardia.
Milano-Torino was first held in 1876 and originally took place in a March slot, before switching to Autumn in 1911. It returned to March after World War II before again shifting to a late-season date in the 1970s.
The race was last held in March between 2005 and 2007 before it went on a four-year hiatus. It has been held in October ever since, with the exception of 2020, when it moved to August as part of the revised pandemic calendar and took in a flat route as a warm-up for Milan-San Remo.
This year's edition of Milano-Torino takes place on Wednesday, with Gran Piemonte following on Thursday and then Il Lombardia on October 9.
