Giro d'Italia 2027 route revealed – A climber's paradise with double Mortirolo ascent and return to iconic Monte Zoncolan and Passo Gavia

The route for the 2027 Giro d'Italia has been revealed as a climber's paradise, with three of Italy's most difficult and iconic ascents set to feature as the highlights in May next year: Passo del Mortirolo (twice), Passo Gavia, and Monte Zoncolan.

At the presentation in Rome on Tuesday, race organisers RCS unveiled the 3,418km route from Trieste, near the Slovenian border, to Rome, with a major focus on the north of Italy, two individual time trials, and some days on offer for the sprinters and breakaway experts.

After two years of foreign starts, the Grande Partenza returning to Italy will see racing kick off on Saturday, May 8, with two rest days breaking up the 21 stages and 50,250m of elevation gain before the finale on Sunday, May 30.

The real showpieces of the route will be the mountain stages, with the first return to the 2,600m-high Gavia since 2014 being sandwiched between a double ascent of the brutal Mortirolo on the queen stage 16, finishing in Aprica.

There are seven summit finishes in total, ranging in difficulty across the Apennines and Alps, with the GC also set to be shaken up by two time trials – one being a mountain race against the clock to Campo di Giove, and the other taking in the Monza motor racing circuit on a flatter test.

10 years on from Tom Dumoulin's maiden Grand Tour triumph at the Giro, this opens the door to a time trial specialist potentially dominating the road to Rome, though those aforementioned mountains will bring only the most complete riders to the fore in contention for the maglia rosa.

With the duo of time trials, RCS will be hoping to attract the likes of Remco Evenepoel as the leading star, with defending champion Jonas Vingegaard not expected to return, and 2024 winner Tadej Pogačar likely to opt for the Tour de France and Vuelta a España in 2027. Though the Belgian is all but certain to return to the Tour, a combination may not fit with his team's plans, so the organisers may have to look elsewhere for their headline name on the start list.

For those not chasing the iconic pink jersey, there will be between six and eight possible opportunities, though the pure sprinters see their chances squeezed as several uphill kicks and stages featuring late climbs offer up ground for opportunistic attackers or breakaway hunters to make their moves. All in all, it's a typical Giro route with something for everyone, albeit the first one not designed by Mauro Vegni – the previous race director who retired last year.

Week one

Trieste to Monte Livata

In an ideal world, organisers RCS would have hoped that a Grande Partenza in Trieste and early foray across the Slovenian border would've attracted the likes of 2023 winner Primož Roglič and 2024 champion Pogačar. However, with the former still having not signed for a new team for 2027 and the latter wanting to complete the Grand Tour set with the Vuelta, neither look like probable starters for May.

That being said, several of the world's best riders will descend on the northeast corner of Italy in Friuli-Venezia Giulia for the first Grand Tour of 2027, where the chaos, unpredictable weather, and brutal climbing of the Giro will be back at its best for the 110th edition.

The first pink jersey will be decided in Trieste on a punchy opening day, where three short hills in the final 30km should pit the top puncheurs against the versatile sprinters, with the GC favourites just trying to stay out of trouble and potentially fight out a small group sprint.

Stage 2 will be battled out entirely in Slovenia from the capital city in Ljubljana to Koper, with another undulating route opening the door to the same types of riders who starred on stage 1. The same can be said of stage 3, when racing returns fully to Italy for a gradually rising uphill run to the line in Possagno in the Veneto region – again the puncheurs should have their day.

Following a longer transfer down to Argenta in Emilia-Romagna, the sprinters will have their first guaranteed opportunity of the 2027 Giro on stage 4, finishing at the MotoGP circuit, Autodromo Marco Simoncelli in Misano, near the Adriatic coast.

The first mountain top finish of the race arrives a day later on stage 5 to Sarnano Sassotetto, where the initial movements in the GC race will be made on the 13.1km ascent which averages 7.4% gradient. Only ranked with three stars of difficulty by the organisers, it's more of a GC loosener than a decisive day, with significantly easier climbs approaching the finale in the Marche region, but it will indicate who has survived the initial salvoes best in the fight for pink.

Stage 6 fits into the same category as the opening three days of racing, where a breakaway could easily jump up the road to fight it out on the east coast from Alba Adriatica to Lanciano, where undulating and dragging roads will lead to the finish.

The GC favourites will be looking to survive that ahead of the first really crucial day in the overall race. On stage 7, the action is the mountain individual time trial from Sulmona to Campo di Giove, where19.6km of racing and a testing 12.5km should completely reshuffle the standings and potentially the pink jersey holder. It's the first mountain ITT at the Giro since the race was decided on the penultimate day in favour of Roglič in 2023, but at just a 4.4% average gradient on the climb – which is almost 5km longer – it isn't as vicious as the 11.2% average from three years ago.

Stage 8 brings the 2027 Giro back to Naples for the sixth season in a row, and while it has typically been a sprint stage in that time, the profile points to more of a punchy finale, with several short kickers in the final 30km.

The first week comes to a close with the second summit finish of the race, albeit on a mountainous stage 9 with just over 3000m of elevation gain. After a flat opening 70km, the stage win will be battled out to Monte Livata (13.9km at 6.9%), where the hardest gradients are all packed into the first 4km of the climb – it hasn't featured in the Giro before, but was used in the U23 men's Giro last season, where eventual winner Lorenzo Finn won solo by 52 seconds.

Week two

Monza time trial sets up final week

After the first rest day, the Giro gets back underway with two chances for the breakaway on stage 10 and stage 11, the former finishing with two climbs in the last 30km and a long downhill run to the line, and the latter would be a certain sprint stage, if not for a final short sharp climb arriving with 28km to go.

It doesn't take long for GC action to resume with another summit finish on stage 12, as the race heads through its one and only stage in Tuscany towards the Passo due Santi on the border with Emilia-Romagna. It's 8.7km at 8.3%, and could prove the next major point in the maglia rosa fight, with the final 2.4km to the summit averaging more than 11% in gradient.

Stage 13 to Reggio Emilia is one of the almost guaranteed sprint stages, but the focus will quickly turn to those chasing the overall in Italy after a long transfer north into Lombrady. Stage 14 will he the hardest stage of the race so far when it arrives, taking the riders across just under 5000m of elevation gain en route to Piani di Bobbio. Four shorter climbs will precede the final 10.1km ascent which averages 9% gradient – a true brute in the Bergamasque Prealps, where if someone doesn't already have a commanding lead, this will be the best chance to take control yet.

The second week concludes with the second individual time trial of the race, a 37.3km pancake flat race against the clock on stage 15 from the Monza F1 circuit to Milan. If Evenepoel isn't present, then it should emerge as a day for the likes of Filippo Ganna, where all the GC hopefuls will need to have recovered from the day prior's big mountain test.

Week three

Mortirolo double and Zoncolan to decide pink

In typical Giro fashion, the hardest stages of the 110th edition are all backloaded into the final week, and there is no such thing as a slow restart from the second rest day here, heading straight for the queen stage 16 on Tuesday, May 25, from Sondrio to Aprica.

192km in length, with 5,700m of elevation gain, and featuring some of the most feared ascents in the Italian Alps, the organisers have opened the door to the race being completely flipped on its head with the Passo del Mortirolo being tackled twice in the same stage, with a return to the Passo Gavia sandwiched between the double header.

At 12.8km and averaging 10.1% gradients, the Mortirolo is a true icon of the Giro, but after the first time up, the riders won't have any respite as they descend back to the valley and begin the climb to the Gavia – a 16.5km brute with a more regular average gradient of 8%, but one which ventures to 2,600m in altitude. Following that with another rep up the Mortirolo and then a final climb to Aprica should make it one of the hardest races of the entire season, and where pink could be decided once and for all.

If, and only if, the sprinters have survived this long, they could be rewarded by a sprint stage 17 into Vó, but two late hills in the last 20km could complicate that, and after such a brutal mountain stage, the breakaway hopefuls may be more likely.

With the legs still screaming from two days prior, the GC riders will have to go again on stage 18, with a 4,450m elevation gain day to another summit finish at Madonna di Campiglio, but not before taking on the Passo Ballno, Passo Durone (twice), and Passo Daone. This final climb is much shallower at 5.7% average, so may be one for a break to get up the road as the GC favourites await the Zoncolan.

Stage 19 should see the sprint teams come to the fore again, but early climbs heading out of Rovereto will give a strong break an opportunity to form – but the fast men will have been so starved of opportunities at this point that staying away could prove very challenging.

The last time Monte Zoncolan characterised a route of the Giro d'Italia, it was barely seen in all its glory, with a foggy and cold day in 2021 being captured by Lorenzo Fortunato. The penultimate day of the race on stage 20 will give someone a chance to join him, Chris Froome, and Michael Rogers as modern winners on this iconic mountain in the Carnic Alps. With the race returning to where it started in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, the 10.1km climb at 11.9% average gradient should provide one final chance to capture pink, or to reaffirm dominance on a backloaded final mountain stage, with 3,600m of elevation gain packed into the final 50km of the route.

Whoever is in pink at the summit will be crowned the winner of the 2027 Giro d'Italia, with only the processional sprint circuit in Rome left to be completed on stage 21 after a long transfer south to the capital.

2027 Giro d'Italia stage information

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