The 2027 Giro d’Italia route is out — and it is unmistakably built for the climbers. Race organiser RCS Sport unveiled the 110th edition of the Corsa Rosa in Rome on 3 November, laying out a 3,418.9km course that starts with a Grande Partenza in Trieste and ends, as tradition dictates, in Rome on Sunday 30 May. In between sit a staggering 50,250 metres of vertical gain, eight summit finishes and the long-awaited return of Monte Zoncolan.
New race director Luca Guercilena has flipped the usual script. Rather than scattering the big mountains across three weeks, he has loaded the decisive climbing into the final days, building toward a Zoncolan showdown the day before the processional finish in the capital. “We wanted to create a Giro route for real riders, with iconic climbs, with legendary climbs,” Guercilena said at the presentation. As reported by Cyclingnews and Domestique Cycling, the design is a deliberate pitch to tempt the sport’s biggest Grand Tour names to put Italy at the centre of their 2027 seasons.
What Happened
RCS Sport presented both the men’s Giro and the Giro d’Italia Women in Rome, with Guercilena joined by RCS management and RCS Media Group owner Urbano Cairo. The men’s race covers 21 stages between Saturday 8 May and Sunday 30 May, with two rest days and that headline total of 50,250 metres of climbing — a punishing figure even by the Giro’s standards.
The opening week leans on a north-eastern Grande Partenza in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, a region that missed out on hosting the 2025 start and reportedly paid close to €10 million — partly by bankrolling the Zoncolan finale — to secure this one. Stage 1 loops through the Trieste area, stage 2 runs from Ljubljana to Koper after a dip into Slovenia, and the first real GC test arrives on stage 5’s steep summit finish at Sarnano-Sassotetto. Stage 7 then serves up a 19.6km mountain time trial to the Campo di Giove ski resort — a cronoscalata tailor-made for aero-strong all-rounders rather than pure climbers.
The middle week mixes motor-racing-circuit finishes at the Misano and Mugello autodromos with new summit tests at Zum Zeri and Piani di Bobbio, the latter a mini Il Lombardia stuffed with 4,900 metres of climbing. It closes with the race’s second time trial, a fast, flat 37.3km run from Monza’s autodromo into central Milan — a day for the specialists to claw back the minutes they are likely to lose once the road tilts upward.
The Climbs That Will Decide the 2027 Giro
Week three is where the 110th Giro bares its teeth. Stage 16 from Sondrio to Aprica is a five-star, 192km monster carrying 5,700 metres of altitude gain, built around a double ascent of the fearsome Passo del Mortirolo with the 2,618m Passo del Gavia — the roof of the entire race — sandwiched in between. The Mortirolo is tackled after just 32km and again inside the final 45km, promising walls of roadside tifosi and a GC battle that could crack the race wide open.
After a breakaway-friendly leg to Madonna di Campiglio — forever associated with Marco Pantani’s dramatic 1999 expulsion while in the pink jersey — the race heads back toward Friuli for the finale everyone has circled: Monte Zoncolan. Climbed on stage 20 from its hardest Ovaro side, the Zoncolan rises from 530m to 1,730m in just 10.1km at an average gradient of 11.9%, with ramps that routinely tip into the high teens. It last featured from this side in 2018, when Chris Froome soloed to victory on his way to overall glory. Whoever leads over the top will almost certainly be crowned the 2027 champion in Rome 24 hours later.
Why It Matters
The defining tension in this route is climbers versus time-triallists. With 56.9km against the clock split between the uphill Campo di Giove test and the flat Monza–Milan run, Guercilena has deliberately left the door open for engine-room GC riders. That is a clear invitation to time-trial specialists such as Remco Evenepoel, fresh from another major one-day win, who would relish a Grand Tour where he can bank time on flat and rolling TT kilometres before defending in the mountains.
It is a trickier proposition for a pure climber like Jonas Vingegaard, who dominated the 2026 Giro but was absent from the Rome presentation. The Dane can climb with anyone, yet two long time trials narrow his margin for error. The route also tees up intriguing what-ifs around whether Tadej Pogačar — whose recent seasons have been defined by crushing stage-race dominance — fancies a tilt at the corsa rosa, and whether France’s Paul Seixas and a new generation of talents led by riders like Isaac del Toro make Italy a target. With veterans such as Primož Roglič also weighing up their 2027 plans, the start list may become the real story over the winter.
What This Means For You
You do not need a WorldTour contract to get something out of this route. The Giro’s marquee climbs — the Zoncolan, the Mortirolo, the Gavia — are all open roads you can ride yourself, and they sit high on plenty of amateur bucket lists. The common thread is sustained, steep effort: the Zoncolan alone averages nearly 12% for 10km, the kind of climb that rewards a deep base of endurance and smart, low-cadence pacing far more than raw sprint power.
If the 2027 route has you dreaming of a European climbing trip or a hilly sportive, the smart move is to start structuring your training now. Building toward a long, mountainous day is exactly what our guide to preparing for your first gran fondo is designed for — progressive long rides, climbing repeats, and fuelling practice so that big gradients feel like a challenge rather than a wall. Even if your ‘Zoncolan’ is the biggest hill in your county, the principles that will decide the Giro apply to your own goals too.
There is nuance in the balance, too. RCS Sport has pencilled in roughly six sprint-friendly days, but several come with late climbs or technical finishes that will force the fast men and their lead-out trains to work for every opportunity. Stages into Naples and along the motor-racing circuits look like springboards for the sprinters, yet the overall shape of the race — front-loaded sprint chances, a brutal closing week — means the general classification is unlikely to settle until the final mountain weekend.
RCS also unveiled the 2027 Giro d’Italia Women alongside the men’s route, underlining the organiser’s push to grow both races in tandem. For fans, the takeaway is simple: after a 2026 defined by Jonas Vingegaard’s command, the 2027 edition has been engineered to reward aggression and punish anyone who arrives at the Zoncolan with tired legs.
Key Takeaways
- The 2027 Giro d’Italia runs 8–30 May, from Trieste to Rome, covering 3,418.9km with a huge 50,250m of climbing and eight summit finishes.
- Two time trials totalling 56.9km — an uphill test to Campo di Giove and a flat Monza–Milan run — are built to tempt GC riders like Remco Evenepoel.
- Monte Zoncolan returns on the penultimate stage from its brutal Ovaro side (10.1km at 11.9%), raced for the first time since 2018.
- Stage 16 to Aprica packs 5,700m of climbing with a double Mortirolo and the race’s high point, the 2,618m Passo del Gavia.
- The route sets up a classic climbers-versus-time-triallists battle, with Vingegaard, Evenepoel, Pogačar and a wave of young contenders all in the frame.
Route details were revealed by RCS Sport at the official presentation in Rome on 3 November and reported by Cyclingnews and Domestique Cycling. Stage distances and gradients are per the organiser’s published route guide.
