The 2025 Giro d'Italia route could well avoid most of the daunting climbs of the Dolomites and include a sterrato Strade Bianche-style stage through Tuscany, according to the latest rumours.
The delayed 2025 Giro d'Italia presentation is set to take place on January 13 in Rome, the Italian capital where the race is all but confirmed to finish on June 1. But the exceptionally long countdown is seemingly allowing for plenty of leaked details and rumours to emerge before the definitive route publication in a week's time.
According to Cicloweb, following the first three days in Albania, starting May 9 – the only part of the route already officially published – the Giro will then cross the Adriatic Sea and resume on home soil in the closest neighbouring Italian region of Puglia.
The first major mountain day of the 2025 race could be as soon as stage 7 in the southern Apennines, ending with an 11km ascent and summit finish at Tagliacozzo.
As the Giro then heads north towards the Alps, another big fan favourite could well be a Strade Bianche style sterrato stage to close out the first week. Stage 9 is forecast to finish in the same city of Siena where the Italian March Classic ends each year, using the same steep ascent into the centre of its old quarter.
A time trial of roughly 30 kilometres between Pisa and Lucca is then expected to open up the second week, with another tough Apennine stage, perhaps including the San Pellegrino climb, following hard on its heels.
Hilly and flat days alternate en route to a brief incursion into Slovenia, with an ascent of Monte Grappa – where Tadej Pogačar stamped his authority on the 2024 Giro for one last time – culminating the second week on stage 15.
According to Cicloweb, citing La Flamme Rouge, the 2025 route then skirts across the southern edge of the Dolomites in what will be a tough day across the little-known climbs of Passo Santa Barbara and a summit finish at San Valentino di Brentonico. Famous Dolomite ascents like the Pordoi, Tre Cime di Lavaredo and the Gardena are all missing from May's race.
However, one of the Giro's most famed ascents, the Mortirolo in the central Italian Alps, will reportedly feature on stage 17 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its central role in an unforgettable three-way duel between Marco Pantani – who came out the winner – Miguel Indurain and Evgeni Berzin.
The final showdown is likely to come on treks through the western Alps on stages 19 and 20, with the daunting ascent of the Colle Finestre, including sections of off-road, providing the definitive verdict 24 hours before the finish in Rome.
If the route published by Cicloweb is confirmed, the absence of so many famous climbs – not only in the north, but also with emblematic ascents like Mount Etna in Sicily or the Blockhaus in the central Apennines missing from the equation – could well give the impression that the 2025 Giro will not be so difficult as usual.
But the third week, in fact, could have plenty to offer the climbers, all the same, and the definitive version of the route, when published next Monday, January 13, may well confirm that.
