The 109th edition of the Giro d’Italia begins Friday with a 147-kilometre first stage from the Old Town of Nessebar to Burgas on the Black Sea.
The 184 riders from 23 teams are expected to finish around 5 p.m., marking the start of three days of racing in Bulgaria before the peloton continues through Italy.
Bulgaria is hosting the Grande Partenza from May 8 to 10, featuring scenic routes through key cultural and natural landmarks. Stage two takes riders from Burgas to Veliko Tarnovo on May 9, followed by a stage to Sofia via Plovdiv on May 10. The race will conclude in Rome on May 31, covering more than 3,450 kilometres in total.
Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard of the Visma-Lease a Bike team is the race’s biggest star. The two-time Tour de France champion (2022, 2023) and 2025 Vuelta a España winner aims to become only the eighth rider in history to win all three Grand Tours. He will face competition from 23-year-old Giulio Pellizzari of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, who finished sixth in both the Giro and Vuelta last year, as well as Pellizzari’s teammate Jai Hindley, the 2022 Giro champion.
Egan Bernal, the 2021 champion, also seeks a comeback after recent setbacks. The Colombian will rely on strong team support from INEOS, which recently announced a strategic reset to return to top-level performance.
The United Arab Emirates team is favoured in the team classification but lacks a clear leader after the absence of 2024 champion Tadej Pogacar, runner-up Isaac del Toro, and Joao Almeida. Adam Yates is expected to take on the leadership role.
Sprinters are expected to dominate the points classification, with Italian Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek emerging as the favourite. Milan, a two-time points classification winner at the Giro, has already claimed six victories this season and holds a record of winning the points classification in all three Grand Tours he has completed. His main rivals include Australia’s Kaden Groves, the Netherlands’ Dylan Groenewegen, and Germany’s Pascal Ackermann.
The flat profile of stage one gives Milan an early advantage, while the climbers’ blue jersey remains open for contest among Vingegaard, Pellizzari, Hindley, and Bernal.
Related topics:
