Giro d’Italia organizers, RCS Sport, have announced a route for the 2015 edition of the Italian three-week event during a traditional unveiling ceremony held in Palazzo del Ghiaccio in Milan on Monday. The UCI President Brian Cookson attended the event, along with some protagonists of the discipline in likes of Cadel Evans, Fabio Aru, Michał Kwiatkowski, Rigoberto Uran, Ivan Basso or Nacer Bouhanni.

The Giro organizers were consequent in transforming the race into a modern spectacle with increasingly balanced route, turning once overloaded with tough mountaintop finishes event into a one suitable for riders of all characteristics.

Thus, according to rumors which appeared in cycling-related press last week, the 2015 edition of the Italian Grand Tour will consist of less high mountain affairs in favour of medium mountain stages, suitable for breakaway artists as well as more persistent sprinters. According to its modern tradition, an ultimate week again will be the most testing, but it couldn’t change a final assessment that next year’s course of the Giro was created to support Contador’s and Nibali’s ambitions to take on the difficult Giro-Tour challenge.

Coming into exciting details, the Giro d’Italia 2015 route will consist of a total number of 3,481.4 kilometers, with no less than 43,000 meters of climbing included. It will kick-off with a team time trial in San Remo on May 9 and reach its conclusion in sprinters’ parade in Milan on May 31.

Meanwhile, riders will be tested on seven flat stages, eight medium mountain and four high mountain stages, reaching next edition’s Cima Coppi – Colle Delle Finistre, on a very decisive penultimate day. There will be seven mountaintop finishes and only one, but extremely testing 59.2 kilometre long individual time trial, which will most certainly shake the general classification all over for the first time, coming on fourteenth day of competition.

No less than six stages with bunch sprint scenario written all over it, the fastest man of the professional peloton in likes of Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano), Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) or Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma – Quick Step) again might be tempted to pay a visit to Apennine Peninsula in May. They will certainly fancy their chances to clash again in Genoa, Castiglione della Pescaia, Forli, Jesolo, Lugano and Milan, but no one can rule out that lumpy stages to Fiuggi and Imola could as well be decided in a sprint.

The next season’s route of the Giro d’Italia consists of eight medium mountain stages – from hilly affairs suitable for Ardennes specialists to three finishing atop the climbs, during which general classification contenders will test their strengths.

A 59.2-kilometre long individual time trial from Treviso to Valdobiaddene will sort out a shape of event’s general classification even more than this year’s stage from Barbaresco to Barolo did, while high mountain affairs consisting of such ascents like Saint Barthelemy, Col Saint-Pantaleon, Cervinia, Passo del Mortirolo, Maddonna del Campiglio, Colle Delle Finistre or Sestriere will bring the biggest excitement.
 

Route of the 2015 Giro d'Italia:

May 09, Stage 1: San Lorenzo Al Mare - Sanremo (TTT), 17.6km

May 10, Stage 2: Albenga - Genoa, 173km

May 11, Stage 3: Rapallo - Sestri Levante, 136km

May 12, Stage 4: Chiavari - La Spezia, 150km

May 13, Stage 5: La Spezia - Abetone, 152km

May 14, Stage 6: Montecatini Terme - Castiglione Della Pescaia, 181km

May 15, Stage 7: Grosseto - Fiuggi, 263km

May 16, Stage 8: Fiuggi - Campitello Matese, 188km

May 17, Stage 9: Benevento - San Giorgio Del Sannio, 212km

May 18, Rest day

May 19, Stage 10: Civitanova Marche - Forlì, 195km

May 20, Stage 11: Forlì - Imola (Autodromo Ferrari), 147km

May 21, Stage 12: Imola - Vicenza (Monte Berico), 190km

May 22, Stage 13: Montecchio Maggiore - Jesolo, 153km

May 23, Stage 14: Treviso - Valdobbiadene (Individual time trial), 59.2km

May 24, Stage 15: Marostica - Madonna Di Campiglio, 165km

May 25, Rest day

May 26, Stage 16: Pinzolo - Aprica, 175km

May 27, Stage 17: Tirano - Lugano, 136km

May 28, Stage 18: Melide - Verbania, 172km

May 29, Stage 19: Gravellona Toce - Cervinia, 236km

May 30, Stage 20: Saint-Vincent - Sestriere, 196km

May 31, Stage 21: Turin - Milan, 185km