Race starts with Castellania TTT in honour of Fausto Coppi
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Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, Annemiek van Vleuten and Amanda Spratt on the podium(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Annemiek Van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) is the leader of the Giro Rosa after stage 7(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Annemiek van Vleuten in the maglia rosa (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The 2019 Giro Rosa will feature summit finishes on the Passo di Gavia and at Malga Montasio, while there will also be a tough hilltop finale to the concluding stage in Udine. The route of the 10-day race was presented in Carate Brianza on Friday.
The 30th edition of the Giro Rosa will get underway on July 5 and will mark the centenary of Fausto Coppi’s birth on the opening stage, an 18km team time trial that finishes in Il Campionissimo’s birthplace of Castellania.
The race remains in Piedmont for stage 2, a 78km leg that starts and finishes in Viù. Stage finishes in Piedicavallo and Carate Brianza follow, ahead of the race’s entry into the high mountains on stage 5 for the much-anticipated summit finish on the Passo di Gavia.
The mighty Gavia, which stands at an altitude of 2,621 metres, first featured in the men’s Giro d’Italia in 1960 and gained everlasting notoriety after Andy Hampsten’s snowbound ascent into the maglia rosa in 1988. The Gavia was included as a summit finish at the under-23 Giro in 2012, when Joe Dombrowski defeated Fabio Aru on its slopes to claim final overall victory in the race.
The Gavia tappone is followed by another demanding day in Valtellina on stage 6, a stiff uphill time trial from Chiuro to Teglio. The 12km test should provoke significant gaps among the GC contenders.
After a finish in Fara Vincentina on stage 7, the Giro Rosa spends its final three days in the Friuli region, and though the rumoured stage over Monte Crostis has not come to pass, a spectacular conclusion to the race is in store.
Maniago hosts the finish of stage 8, before another difficult stage in the high mountains from Gemona to the summit finish at Malga Montasio. The finishing climb has an average gradient of 8.1 per cent and pitches of 20 per cent. It featured on the men’s Giro in 2013, when Rigoberto Uran was the stage winner.
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The concluding stage of the Giro Rosa, meanwhile, is a 118.6km leg that brings the peloton from San Vito al Tagliamento to Udine, and the leg-stinging cobbled climb to the castle promises to provide a dramatic denouement to the race.
