Race organizers confirmed today that the first three stages of the 2024 Giro d’Italia will start in Turin.
Primoz Roglic will begin his title defense on May 4 at Venaria Reale just north of football club Juventus’ Allianz Stadium and finish the opening stage in central Turin after a 28-kilometer circuit of the city.
The race will stay in Piedmont in Italy’s north-west for the next two stages, with an 11km, 6.2 percent gradient climb to Santuario di Oropa in the Italian Alps coming at the end of the 150km second stage which starts in San Francesco al Campo.
A flat, sprinter-friendly third stage between Novara and Fossano follows while stage four begins in Acqui Terme before taking the riders out of Piedmont and into an as-yet unnamed destination in the neighboring seaside region of Liguria.
Next year’s complete route will be announced on Friday.
The opening three stages of the 2024 Giro d’Italia:
La Gazzetta dello Sport notes that the start date is exactly 75 years after the major air tragedy on the hill of Superga, where on May 4th, 1949, a plane carrying Turin’s football team, known locally as Grande Torino, crashed into the climb on the outskirts of the city and all 31 people on board died. That year’s winner, Fausto Coppi, dedicated his victory to Ezio Loik, a midfielder who was on board the plane.
“The 107th edition will be a homage to Grande Torino,” the paper stated, and the first stage, just 136km long, will include the Superga climb at its mid-way point to honor their memory and the anniversary of the crash. The cat. 2 Colle Magdalena, with its summit 20km from the finish could well decide the winner and first race leader.
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