Giro d'Italia goes against Grand Tour trends with long and high stages

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Mauro Vegni, the director of the Giro d'Italia, has defended his decision to design what some consider a 'traditional' race route for the 2020 Corsa Rosa with ten stages over 200km in length and several long and high mountain finishes, insisting that "high mountains and a test of endurance reveal who are the true champions."

The Vuelta a España has introduced shorter stages and numerous steep uphill finish in recent years, with the Tour de France following a similar design in 2020 and cutting the total of time trial kilometres, perhaps to favour aggressive French riders Julian Alaphilippe and Thibaut Pinot.

Stephen Farrand
Head of News

Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.