Giro d’Italia: Roglic, Ayuso… Vingegaard and/or Pogacar? A Giro from Albania to attract the stars

Albania opens up to the world, a country of sunshine even if it rains this Christmas Monday in Tirana, presentation day of the Grande Partenza 2025. On May 9, the Giro will start, for the first time in its history, from the Balkans, in this “little Italy on the other side of the sea” as he boasts with enthusiasm and perfect Italian Eddie Ramaprime minister of a country that is a candidate to enter the European Union very soon and that also aspires to host, before 2030, a Formula 1 Grand Prix.

But there is no tourist showcase like cycling. There will be “250 million people” observing for three days that country that leaves behind decades of darkness and communism, three stages designed by Mauro Vegni to show beaches and mountains and also the streets of Tirana, a Grande Partenza “unsuitable for sprinters.” The second day, an individual time trial of 13 kilometers and the third, in Wallona, ​​with a tremendous pass, Qafa e Llogarase, almost 11 kilometers with ramps of up to 12%.

“It means taking the seed of the Giro to a new country, expanding the family. It is an area with tradition, we had already done a Grande Partenza in Athens and now they are playing in the Balkans. I think it is a great opportunity, for us, but above all for Albania,” admits Paolo BellinoCEO and general director of RCS Sports & Events, who made the agreement with the president Urban Cairo.

It will be the 15th time that the Grande Partenza has taken place outside the borders of Italy in 108 editions of the Giro. Tirana will take over from Budapest 2022 and its name will be alongside those of Jerusalem, Apeldoorn, Belfast, Herning or Amsterdam, the last non-transalpine cities in a tradition that Greece inaugurated in 1996 to celebrate the centenary of the Olympic Games (although before that there were also departures from San Marino and Monte Carlo).

An opportunity for expansion and one more hook for the stars, who await next January 13 so that the complete route of the Corsa Rosa will be revealed at the Auditorio Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone in Rome. So, Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar They will define their paths, destined to collide only in the Tour de France. The Dane would debut in search of the pink jersey and the Slovenian would seek to revalidate the amazing roadmap of 2024, the historic and devastating double. The second, that Tadej is leaving Tirana, seems more unlikely, although he has not yet made an official statement. As neither Remco Evenepoel. “It will be a very nice Giro. There will be an important stage on sterrato, of course mountain stages and we will touch the main cities of Italy, not only Rome, but also Naples and others. Last year was a great Giro and the next one will be too. On January 13 we will reveal everything,” Bellino confirms to EL MUNDO.

The one who has already assured his presence, the first attraction, is the other great Slovenian in the peloton. Primoz Roglic will postpone his attempt to make history by winning his fifth Vuelta a España to try to add his second Giro to his record after the one he won two years ago by 14 seconds at Geraint Thomas. Daniel Felipe Martínez (second in 2024) and Jai Hindley (winner in 2023) will be his luxury squires at Bora. Then he will go to his ‘damned’ appointment with the Tour.

Also Juan Ayuso, accompanied by Adam Yates and Isaac del Toro at the UAE Emirates, he will be in Albania for his debut in the Corsa Rosa (he swept the Giro sub 23 in 2021). “It seems that the podium is already written,” he jokes Vincenzo Nibalialso present in Tirana, capital of a country that receives a million Italian tourists every year, as ambassador of the Giro. The Spanish representation will complete it Pello Bilbao and probably Mikel Landa. And Nairo Quintanawinner in 2014, and One Rubio leading the Movistar Team. All in Albania, a territory that aims to discover itself through cycling. “Not only your country convinced us, but also your organization and your enthusiasm. And above all the drive of President Rama. We could not say no to him. Here we will leave a great legacy, there will be a great increase in tourism and the birth of new professions, for example those linked to cycle tourism”, concludes Paolo Bellino.

Three electrical stages

It will really be in Durazzo where the Giro 2025 begins. A first stage, that of May 9, of 164 kilometers with an end in two laps of a circuit in Tirana in which the third-grade port of Surrel will be climbed, also twice, to join to the previous Gracen, almost 14 kilometers of ascent at 5.2% average. It is not very likely that a sprinter will be able to don the first pink jersey, which in any case would be lost the next day, with the almost 14 kilometer time trial through the streets of Tirana, which is not for pure specialists either, as it has a tough slope (Sauk) in the middle. The Albanian triptych is completed with the most demanding of the three stages, with arrival and finish in Walloon, 160 demanding kilometers with the long second pass Qaba e Llogarase (7.4% average slope) after whose descent the finish line will be reached. . The transfer to Italy will be on Monday the 12th.