The 2020 Tour of the Alps was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic but the race organisation have confirmed that the event will return in April 2021, when it will follow the same route as had been planned for this year’s edition.
Formerly known as the Giro del Trentino, the race was rebranded as the Tour of the Alps in 2017 as its route broadened to encompass the Euroregion of Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino in Italy and Austria.
The UCI ProSeries event is a traditional curtain-raiser for the Giro d’Italia but in May the organisation confirmed that it had opted to postpone the Tour of the Alps to 2021 rather than lobby for a place ahead of the rescheduled corsa rosa. The 2020 Giro is set to take place from October 3-25 after the UCI revised the Autumn calendar when the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the season in March.
“We confirmed the stage locations planned for the 2020 edition and we are proud of this,” GS Alto Garda president Giacomo Santini said.
“This is a testament to the appreciation of our race’s organizational quality, and its significant impact on territorial promotion. The relationships established with the stage locations will allow us to organize a beautiful edition of the Tour of the Alps. We wish thank the three territorial boards: thanks to their contribution, the Tour of the Alps will start from where it left off.”
The 2021 Tour of the Alps will take place from April 20-24, starting in Brixen/Bressanone and finishing in Riva del Garda. The race will comprise five short but arduous stages for a total of 13,000 metres of climbing. Transfers between stages have been reduced compared to 2019 as part of the race organisation’s bid to reduce the event’s carbon footprint.
Stage 1 crosses into Austria by way of the Brenner Pass en route to Innsbruck, and the 142.8km leg features three laps of a finishing circuit over the Axams climb, which was on the time trial route at the 2018 World Championships.
The following day sees a summit finish at Feichten im Kaunertal, while the race crosses back into Italy on stage 3 with a 164km leg to Naturno.
The longest and most demanding stage comes on the penultimate day, as the gruppo takes in 3,380m of total climbing on the 168km haul to Pieve di Bono. The first ascent is the 1,706m-high Passo Castrin, the highest point of the Tour of the Alps, which is followed by the Campo Carlo Magno.
The final stage is a short but demanding affair from the Valle delle Chiese to Riva del Garda, which includes the category 1 Passo Duran, as well as twin ascents of the climb of Pranzo before the finish on the northern shore of Lake Garda.
The 2019 Tour of the Alps was won by Pavel Sivakov (Team Ineos), who went on to place 9th overall in his debut Giro d’Italia. He was preceded on the roll of honour by Thibaut Pinot (2018), Geraint Thomas (2017), Mikel Landa (2016) and Richie Porte (2015).
