The 2027 Giro d’Italia is a crowd-pleaser

May is still distant, yet it is also drawing nearer. The first cold spells have arrived, but the scent of spring, heralding summer, is already in the air. Perhaps. You never know these days. It won’t last long, but at least it’s there, while the presentation of the 2027 Giro d’Italia remains in the news.

Today, cycling enthusiasts—those who plan their schedules around the live broadcast of each stage and who have no qualms about travelling hundreds of kilometres just to catch those few seconds when the riders pass by—have begun marking on the calendar which days in May must be kept free. And there are plenty of them.

Why the 2027 Giro d’Italia is a crowd-pleaser. One of those that, at first glance, seem wonderful, innovative and potentially thrilling. Even if, on closer inspection, something doesn’t quite add up.

Without a doubt, 2027 will mark the return of the Gavia Pass. It had been since 2014 that riders had last reached the pass’s altitude of 2,618 metres above sea level, which links the Val di Gavia (and thus the Valfurva and the Valtellina) with the upper Val Camonica. It has been far too long, but Mauro Vegni had explained to Il Foglio in recent days the reasoning behind his decisions: the risk of snow and avalanches is too high in May, which is why he preferred to skip the summit section.

The organisers have decided to take a risk in the hope that everything will go well. They are hoping that luck will be on their side. Of course, there is still a long way to go to the finish line, but the double climb up the Mortirolo Pass – and from the Mazzo di Valtellina side, no less – is brilliant news.

To see the Gavia, however, we’ll have to wait until the third week – a week that will conclude on Sunday in Rome and on Saturday on the Zoncolan. It’s an extremely tough climb, but its placement on the penultimate stage could intimidate many. Perhaps it deserved a different spot on the route; it certainly wasn’t easy, and it would have meant moving it to the first week. Too big a risk. Perhaps so, even if it was worth it.

Whilst the final mountain finish will be on the Zoncolan, the first of the 2027 Giro d’Italia is the one at Sassotetto at the end of the fifth stage. It is not the only one in the Apennines: on the seventh stage there is a time trial finishing at Campo di Giove, above Sulmona; on the ninth stage, the finish is at the summit of Monte Livata, which provided a spectacular show for the Giro Next Gen in June; and the twelfth stage finishes at Passo dei Due Santi, above Zeri, 8.7 kilometres at an average gradient of 8.7 per cent, with the final 2,500 metres almost constantly exceeding 10 per cent. It has been some time since the Apennines have taken centre stage in this way. There are also finishes at Piani di Bobbio on the fourteenth stage and at Madonna di Campiglio on the eighteenth. Eight mountain stages, plus a mountain time trial, all finishing at high altitude. Some observers may consider this excessive; the descents have effectively been eliminated. Nevertheless, there are those who appreciate such a design.

Attempting to balance out the many (too many?) climbs are the 19.6-kilometre mountain time trial and the 37.3-kilometre flat time trial from Monza to Milan.

And the many pitfalls that have been scattered here and there over the first two weeks. Starting with the three-day Giulian-Slovenian-Friulian-Venetian stage. Three tricky stages, open to any outcome but with little chance of seeing a compact group breakaway. Three times out of three there are short climbs in the final kilometres, some of them tough. Such as the climb from Markovec towards Koper and the ascent from Ca’ Mostaccin towards Possagno. The third stage is a fine one; it could prove thrilling. The tenth stage is also very fine, the one finishing in Norcia with the climbs of Forca di Presta and Forca Ventolosa just a few dozen kilometres from the finish (which comes at the end of a long descent).