2010 Giro d'Italia unveiled in Milan

Denis Menchov at the 2010 Grio d'Italia presentaion

published 24 October 2009

The route of the 2010 Giro d'Italia was officially presented in Milan on Saturday afternoon. The race begins in Holland, and includes a team time trial after returning to Italy, ending with a tough week in the Dolomites and Italian Alps before a final time trial to Verona.

Just like this year's Vuelta a Espana and next year's Tour de France, the Giro has grabbed the money offered by Amsterdam and Holland and will spend the first three days in the Netherlands before transferring back to Italy.

Mark Cavendish and the Team Columbia management have yet to decide if he will ride the Giro d'Italia or the Tour of California next May but two flat stages from Amsterdam to Utrecht and Middleburg would give him a chance to also take the pink jersey again. There are also at least five other sprinters' stages that could tempt him to take on Alessandro Petacchi rather than ride with Lance Armstrong in California.

Italy offers a huge variety of landscape and terrain and even the ride south includes something on every stage. The Giro celebrates the 50th anniversary of the death of Fausto Coppi on stage five by visiting his the village of Castellania where he was born and finishing in Novi Ligure where he lived. Stage seven from Carrara to Montalcino slices across the Tuscan vineyards and includes two hilly sections of the dirt roads of the Eroica ride before the climb to the finish.

The final mountain stage is even worse, with a climb up to Livigno and then the dreaded Gavia before the descent and then final climb to the finish in Ponte di Legno on the Passo Tonale. The Gavia is the climb used in the 1988 Giro d'Italia, when the race organisers sent the riders over the climb in a snow storm. Andy Hamspten was one of the first to make it through the blizzard to the finish and went on to be the first American to win the Giro.

The Giro traditionally ends in Milan but after the problems of this year, with cars on the criterium circuit and the subsequent rider protest, the 2010 has snubbed the Lombardy capital. Instead the race will end in Verona, with a 15.3km time trial on the Torricelle circuit used for the world championships. Like in the 1984 Giro d'Italia, when Francesco Moser snatched victory from Laurent Fignon, the time trial will end inside the Roman amphitheatre.

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2010 Giro d'Italia unveiled in Milan

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