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Giro d’Italia Women 2026 Preview | Route, Stages, Startlist, Favorites

The 2026 Giro d'Italia Women is less about one isolated summit finish than about the cumulative shape of the route. The race opens with sprint stages.

Favorites

Demi Vollering

GC favorite with the climbing and TT power for Nevegal and Finestre

Elisa Longo Borghini

Italian champion defending on home roads with Finestre pedigree

Lotte Kopecky

World-class all-rounder who can TT and climb at this level

Cat Ferguson

Young British climbing talent ready for a Grand Tour GC bid

Kasia Niewiadoma

Consistent Grand Tour performer with strong mountain legs

Lorena Wiebes

Sprint queen targeting stage wins on the flat opening days

Giro d’Italia Women 2026

The 2026 Giro d'Italia Women is less about one isolated summit finish than about the cumulative shape of the route. The race opens with sprint stages, then keeps shifting the balance through rolling days, a hard uphill time trial to Nevegal, a demanding Dolomite stage, and the queen-stage double of Finestre and Sestriere.

Route and stages

The official route article published on December 1, 2025 confirms nine stages and 1,253.7 km. The route is front-loaded enough to keep the sprinters engaged, but the overall race should increasingly belong to the climbers and complete GC riders once the course reaches Belluno, Santo Stefano di Cadore, and especially Sestriere.

Startlist and favorites

The current startlist in Local is still only an initial partial list. Riders already listed who matter immediately to this preview include Demi Vollering, Elisa Longo Borghini, Sarah Gigante, Silvia Persico.

This Local startlist is an initial partial import from the current ProCyclingStats startlist page on March 10, 2026, not a complete official roster.

Use the Giro d'Italia Women 2026 edition page for the owned race overview, the startlist page for the riders currently loaded into Local, and the stage pages for the stage-by-stage previews.