The 2021 Giro d'Italia was the 104th edition of the Giro, a three-week Grand Tour cycling stage race. It started on 8 May and finished on 30 May. On 26 May 2019, the race organisers RCS Sport originally announced that the start of the 2021 Giro (known as the Grande Partenza) would be in Sicily, Italy. However, on 4 February 2021, RCS Sport announced that the race would instead start in Turin, with the rest of the race route being announced on 24 February 2021.
The race was won by Egan Bernal of , winning his first Giro title and his second Grand Tour victory overall. He became the second Colombian to win the Giro after Nairo Quintana did so in 2014. He first took the maglia rosa when he won atop the gravel finish at Campo Felice on stage 9. He proceeded to extend his lead in the second week, culminating in his victory on the shortened queen stage to Cortina d'Ampezzo. Despite his difficulties in the final week, he still had enough advantage to confirm his victory in Milan. He won by 1' 29" ahead of Damiano Caruso of . Going into the race, Caruso was initially supposed to be a domestique for his team's original leader, Mikel Landa. After Landa crashed out on stage 5, Caruso took up the mantle as the team's leader. Caruso proceeded to consistently get high placings on the mountain stages before taking a stage victory on the last mountain stage to Alpe Motta. The last place on the podium was occupied by Simon Yates of , 4' 15" behind Bernal. After constantly losing time in the first two weeks, Yates peaked in the third week, leading to him taking a stage victory on the summit finish to Alpe di Mera.
In the race's other classifications, Peter Sagan of took the points classification title. He first took the maglia ciclamino after winning the sprint on stage 10. Geoffrey Bouchard of took the mountains classification title after consistently taking maximum points on the stages' early climbs. As a result of him winning the maglia rosa, Bernal also took home the young riders classification as the best-placed rider under the age of 25. Dries De Bondt of took home the titles in the intermediate sprint classification and the combativity classification while Simon Pellaud of won the breakaway classification as the rider who had the highest number of kilometres on the breakaway. In the team classifications, Ineos Grenadiers took home the Trofeo Fast Team as the team whose top three riders had the lowest aggregate time while Team Bahrain Victorious took home the fair play classification as one of the three teams who did not get any sanction in the whole race. They won the tiebreaker as a result of Caruso taking the second place in the GC.
Teams
Twenty-three teams received invitations to participate in the 2021 Giro d'Italia. All nineteen UCI WorldTeams were entitled and obliged to enter the race, and they were joined by four second-tier UCI ProTeams. , the best-performing UCI ProTeam in 2020, received an automatic invitation, while the other three teams were selected by RCS Sport, the organisers of the Giro. and continued their streak of wild card invitations to the race, while made its Grand Tour debut. The teams were announced on 10 February 2021.
On 15 April 2021, after positive doping tests for Matteo Spreafico and Matteo De Bonis left them facing a potential suspension, withdrew their participation from the race. As a result, regular invitee , which had participated in the last three Giros but had initially missed out on an invitation, were awarded the last wildcard invitation.
The teams participating in the race are:
UCI WorldTeams
UCI ProTeams
Pre-race favourites
The pre-race favourites were the 2019 Tour de France champion Egan Bernal () and Simon Yates (), who won the lead-up race, Tour of the Alps. Their main challenger was considered to be Remco Evenepoel (), despite not having raced since a crash in the 2020 Il Lombardia. Other top contenders were Hugh Carthy (), after his third place in the 2020 Vuelta a España, former podium finisher Mikel Landa (), Emanuel Buchmann (), Aleksandr Vlasov (), Pavel Sivakov (), and two Maglia Rosa wearers from the 2020 edition – João Almeida () and Jai Hindley (), the eventual 2020 runner-up. Multiple Grand Tour winner Vincenzo Nibali also started the race, but due to only recently having recovered from injury, was not mentioned among the favourites.
Riders believed to be the main contenders for victories on the sprint stages were Caleb Ewan (), Peter Sagan (), Dylan Groenewegen (), Fernando Gaviria (), Elia Viviani (), Giacomo Nizzolo () and Tim Merlier ().
Route and stages
The full route, consisting of 21 stages covering a distance of and an elevation gain of over , was announced by RCS Sport on 24 February 2021. The race was bookended by two individual time trials in Turin and Milan, respectively. There were six summit finishes, the first of which is on stage 6 to Ascoli Piceno. The summit finishes also included the infamous Monte Zoncolan on stage 14 and three of the last five stages. There were also six stages designed for the sprinters to contest and two rest days, after the tenth and sixteenth stages.
Though stage 16 to Cortina d'Ampezzo did not feature a summit finish, it was initially earmarked as the queen stage by race organisers, as riders were due to cover over of elevation gain, and the Passo Pordoi was due to award the Cima Coppi award to the first rider to cross it as the highest climb of the race. However, due to poor weather, the stage was rerouted to remove the Pordoi and Fedaia, significantly shortening it and leaving the Passo Giau as the only climb in the Dolomites. With the removal of the Passo Pordoi, the Passo Giau also became the Cima Coppi of the race.
The nineteenth stage was also changed three days before it was run. The original route had the riders climb the Mottarone climb and then descend into Gignese, however, following the Stresa–Mottarone cable car crash, the route was changed out of respect to those affected to remove the climb, leading the riders straight to Gignese. The stage was shortened by .
+Stage characteristics and winners Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner 1 8 May Turin to Turin Individual time trial 2 9 May Stupinigi (Nichelino) to Novara Flat stage 3 10 May Biella to Canale Hilly stage 4 11 May Piacenza to Sestola Intermediate stage 5 12 May Modena to Cattolica Flat stage 6 13 May Grotte di Frasassi to Ascoli Piceno (San Giacomo) Intermediate stage 7 14 May Notaresco to Termoli Flat stage 8 15 May Foggia to Guardia Sanframondi Intermediate stage 9 16 May Castel di Sangro to Campo Felice (Rocca di Cambio) Mountain stage 10 17 May L'Aquila to Foligno Flat stage 18 May Foligno Rest day 11 19 May Perugia to Montalcino Hilly stage 12 20 May Siena to Bagno di Romagna Intermediate stage 13 21 May Ravenna to Verona Flat stage 14 22 May Cittadella to Monte Zoncolan Mountain stage 15 23 May Grado to Gorizia Hilly stage 16 24 May Sacile to Cortina d'Ampezzo Mountain stage 25 May Canazei Rest day 17 26 May Canazei to Sega di Ala Mountain stage 18 27 May Rovereto to Stradella Flat stage 19 28 May Abbiategrasso to Alpe di Mera (Valsesia) Mountain stage 20 29 May Verbania to Valle Spluga (Alpe Motta) Mountain stage 21 30 May Senago to Milan Individual time trial Total
Classification leadership + Classification leadership by stage Stage Winner General classification Points classification Mountains classification Young rider classification General Super Team Intermediate sprint classification Combativity classification Breakaway classification Fair play classification 1 Filippo Ganna Filippo Ganna Filippo Ganna Not awarded Filippo Ganna Not awarded Filippo Ganna Not awarded 2 Tim Merlier Tim Merlier Vincenzo Albanese Filippo Ganna Filippo Tagliani 3 Taco van der Hoorn Simon Pellaud Vincenzo Albanese 4 Joe Dombrowski Alessandro De Marchi Joe Dombrowski Attila Valter Alessandro De Marchi 5 Caleb Ewan Giacomo Nizzolo Filippo Tagliani Simon Pellaud 6 Gino Mäder Attila Valter Gino Mäder Gino Mäder 7 Caleb Ewan Caleb Ewan Simon Pellaud Simon Pellaud Simon Pellaud 8 Victor Lafay Tim Merlier 9 Egan Bernal Egan Bernal Geoffrey Bouchard Egan Bernal 10 Peter Sagan Peter Sagan 11 Mauro Schmid 12 Andrea Vendrame Dries De Bondt 13 Giacomo Nizzolo Umberto Marengo Simon Pellaud 14 Lorenzo Fortunato 15 Victor Campenaerts Dries De Bondt 16 Egan Bernal 17 Dan Martin Dries De Bondt 18 Alberto Bettiol 19 Simon Yates 20 Damiano Caruso 21 Filippo Ganna Final Egan Bernal Egan Bernal Dries De Bondt Simon Pellaud
On stage 2, Edoardo Affini, who was second in the points classification, wore the cyclamen jersey, because first placed Filippo Ganna wore the pink jersey as the leader of the general classification. Because Ganna and Affini were also the first two riders in the young rider classification, Tobias Foss, who was third in the young rider classification, wore the white jersey. On stage 3, Edoardo Affini, who was second in the young rider classification, wore the white jersey, because first placed Filippo Ganna wore the pink jersey as the leader of the general classification. For the same reason, Tobias Foss wore the white jersey on stage 4. On stage 6, Vincenzo Albanese, who was second in the mountains classification, wore the blue jersey, because first placed Joe Dombrowski didn't start the stage after a crash and a subsequent injury late in stage 5. On stages 7–9, Remco Evenepoel, who was second in the young rider classification, wore the white jersey, because first placed Attila Valter wore the pink jersey as the leader of the general classification. On stages 10 and 11, Evenepoel continued wearing the white jersey, but with Egan Bernal as the leader of the general classification. For the same reason, Aleksandr Vlasov wore the white jersey on stages 12–21.
Race Overview
The Big Start towards central Italy The Giro was originally slated to have its stage one Big Start in Sicily, but it was relocated to begin in Turin.
The first stage was a prologue-like short individual time trial just under nine kilometres long. Filippo Ganna won the stage and pink jersey with Edoardo Affini and Tobias Foss making up the rest of the stage podium. This was the second year in a row Ganna won the opening stage. Riders from took 1st and 10th place as riders from and took six of the other eight places in the top 10. The gap between the important GC riders was wide, from the newcomer Foss and João Almeida finishing 3rd and 4th to Egan Bernal and Mikel Landa finishing 24th and 77th. A three-man breakaway broke clear as soon as the flag dropped on stage 2. The break, composed of Vincenzo Albanese (), Umberto Marengo (), and Filippo Tagliani () were allowed to build up a gap of +4:20 before the peloton began to bring them back with Albanese taking the points for the mountains jersey. The sprinter's teams did their work neutralizing and exterminating the breakaway threat, setting up a final sprint where Tim Merlier won the day ahead of Giacomo Nizzolo and Elia Viviani. As a result of this victory Merlier took over the lead in the points classification and would defend it for the next few stages.
Prior to the start of stage 2 a moment of silence was held in memory of Wouter Weylandt.