Giro del Veneto

The Giro del Veneto is a men's one-day bike race in the Veneto region of northeastern Italy, held in October since its return in 2021. It was first raced in 1909, is the oldest race in the region and was not held from 2013 to 2020. Filippo Pozzato, who won it in 2009, has organized it since 2021 through his company PP Sport Events.

The Giro del Veneto is a men’s one-day race in the Veneto, the region of northeastern Italy around Padua, Vicenza and Verona. It was first raced in 1909 and is the oldest race in the region. Since 2021 it has been organized by Filippo Pozzato, who won it as a rider in 2009.

When was the first Giro del Veneto?

The first Giro del Veneto was held in 1909 and was run in two stages. The second went from Udine to Vicenza, 302 kilometers, and Giovanni Micheletto won it in 11 hours 24 minutes 25 seconds for his first victory as a professional. Luigi Pogliani won the race overall, and Micheletto was second.

The race then came and went. It was not held in 1910 or 1911, Giovanni Roncon beat Costante Girardengo in 1912, and there was no further edition until 1922.

Costante Girardengo’s four wins in a row

Girardengo came back to win four editions in succession, from 1923 to 1926, and he is still the only rider with four wins. The last of the four came ahead of Alfredo Binda, who won the race himself in 1928. Three riders have won three times: Aldo Canazza in 1930, 1931 and 1934, Fausto Coppi in 1941, 1947 and 1949, and Davide Rebellin in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

For most of its history the winners were Italian. By the organizer’s count the first foreign winner was Angelino Soler of Spain, in 1962. Only four more followed before the race stopped: Roger De Vlaeminck of Belgium in 1974, Roland Salm of Switzerland in 1975, Jesper Worre of Denmark in 1983 and Gerhard Zadrobilek of Austria in 1987.

Filippo Pozzato: winner in 2009, organizer since 2021

Pozzato won the 2009 edition as Italian champion. The race started and finished in Padua that year, and he won the sprint of four riders who had gone clear over the last climb, 18 seconds ahead of the main group. He said afterwards that racing close to where he was born had given him extra motivation.

A year later Daniel Oss attacked in the rain on a cobbled turn 1.5 kilometers from the line in Castelfranco Veneto, only his Liquigas teammate Peter Sagan could follow, and Oss took his first win as a professional. Oscar Gatto won in 2012, and then the race dropped off the calendar: there was no edition from 2013 to 2020.

Pozzato, by then retired from racing, organized the Italian championships in the Veneto in August 2020. Afterwards he was asked to take over the Giro del Veneto. His company PP Sport Events brought the race back on October 13, 2021, with the support of SC Padovani, the club that had organized it before. It is part of Ride the Dreamland, a week of races in the Veneto that closes with the Veneto Classic.

The return edition ran from Cittadella to Prato della Valle, the great square in Padua. Matteo Trentin went clear with Xandro Meurisse and Jhonatan Restrepo five kilometers from the finish and did much of the work to keep the bunch away. Meurisse came past him on the line.

Monte Berico: the uphill finish in Vicenza

In 2022 the finish moved to Vicenza. Trentin won there, from a group of five that formed over the top of the last climb to Arcugnano and on the descent from it. In 2023 and 2024 the race ended on a 15-kilometer circuit over Monte Berico, the hill above the city with a sanctuary at the top and porticoes beside the road. The climb is one kilometer long at an average of 7.1 percent, and its last 600 meters stay between 8 and 12 percent.

Dorian Godon won the uphill sprint in 2023. Corbin Strong rode that race too and returned in 2024, when the start was in Verona, rain fell on the circuit and the line was drawn halfway up the climb. He went about 400 meters from the line and won from Meurisse and Romain Grégoire. “It was a technical finish, one I got completely wrong last year,” he said afterwards, as quoted by Cyclingnews.

Isaac del Toro’s solo win on the Torricelle in Verona

In 2025 the race ran the other way, from Vicenza to Verona. It finished with five laps of a 15-kilometer circuit over the Torricelle, the climb of the 1999 and 2004 world championships in Verona. UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Groupama-FDJ set the pace on the laps, and Pavel Sivakov led the bunch onto the last ascent. Isaac del Toro attacked from his wheel, Grégoire followed for a short while, and del Toro rode just over 10 kilometers alone to the finish. He won by 22 seconds from Sivakov and became the first Mexican winner of the race.

In the 83 editions up to 2012 the organizer counts five winners from outside Italy. Four of the five editions from 2021 to 2025 went to foreign riders: Meurisse, Godon, Strong and del Toro.

In 2021 Matteo Trentin was beaten on the line in Padua by Xandro Meurisse, and in 2022 he came back and won in Vicenza from a group of five. Corbin Strong misjudged the uphill finish on Monte Berico in 2023 and won on it in 2024. In 2025 Isaac del Toro attacked on the last ascent of the Torricelle in Verona and rode about 10 kilometers alone to the line.