Celebrating its 37th edition, the Giro d'Italia Women is set to begin on the streets of Cesenatico this Saturday, and it is an important moment as this is the first year the race will be held in alignment with the men's event, which will conclude in Rome on Sunday.
Cyclingnews caught up with Giusy Virelli, events manager at RCS Sport and race director for the women's Giro d'Italia, while she was at the start of stage 17 of the men's event in Cassano d'Adda on Wednesday.
Working closely with Stefano Allocchio, the race director of the men's event, Virelli has been onsite since the Grande Partenza in Bulgaria, and her responsibilities include everything from race management, liaising with the local government officials and politicians, tourist offices, local police, and working with cycling federations and teams. In short: "Everything you need to organise a cycling race," she said.
"I work for the organisation, so I have worked for 16 years with Mauro Vegni. Now that Mauro has retired, I'm here, together with Stefano Allocchio. I manage the race management, all of the sports aspects of the race."
Surrounded by the hustle of Wednesday's starting city – Cassano d'Adda – with the crowds, hundreds of fans, music and the general attraction that is the Giro d'Italia, Virelli explained that this was her final stop on the men's race before she leaves to join the opening stage of the women's race featuring 139km from Cesenatico to Ravenna on Saturday.
She is currently in her eighth month of pregnancy, and so while she is the race director of the women's event, she will not be travelling in the lead vehicle as she normally would.
"My colleagues will manage the race from the car, and I will be there for everything they might need to manage the race," Virelli said.
RCS Sport was assigned the organisation of the Giro d'Italia Under-23 beginning in 2023 and the Giro d'Italia Women beginning in 2024, after the Italian Cycling Federation (FCI) conducted a carefully devised bid process that resulted in RCS Sport being the only contender.
Virelli became the race director and manager of the women's race that year, and now, in its third year of a four-year contract, her assessment, so far, is that the deal has been a success for RCS Sport and the Giro d'Italia Women.
She explained the organisation's efforts to build marketing, fan engagement, television coverage, challenging courses and increased participation during the preceding two years of managing the race.
"I have a long experience with the women's race because I started in Strade Bianche with the women's race in 2015. I saw how the movement grew during these years," Virelli said.
"Of course, the Giro d'Italia is a traditional race for women because it is in its 37th edition. I think it has a great role in women's cycling. In the last three years, we've tried to work to improve the race in all aspects, not only sports, but also in marketing.
"We use the strength of the men's Giro d'Italia with the same look and feel. We try to use the same moments to promote the event, for example, with the route presentation together to exploit the visibility that is offered from the men's Giro d'Italia. This all helps."
This year, the women's Giro d'Italia has moved to a late-May spot on the calendar, stepping away from its traditional July date to avoid overlapping with the men's Tour de France and being too close to the dates of the women's Tour de France. She expects to see improved visibility for the women's Giro d'Italia, not only in fans' accessibility but in television coverage.
"For this year, we decided to move the date completely. It was necessary, first of all, because now with the Tour de France Femmes and having the two events in July, it affected the participation. We needed to do something," Virelli explained some of the difficulties the race had faced with the previous dates in July.
"We also had an overlap with the men's Tour de France, so the space on the television schedule wasn't enough, and it wasn't what women deserved. So, this move [to May] allows us to have a longer exposure.
"We are working on a two-hour [daily] production. The two-hour production will be broadcast on the channels that have the TV rights. This is really important. For example, here in Italy, on Rai, we only had 45 minutes of live coverage, including the protocols, and it was really too short. I think it will be a great move, and we will look at the audience to see if the choice was really the right one. I'm sure that it is."
'We have almost everyone – all the champions'
This edition of the women's Giro d'Italia sees a strong start list featuring two-time winner Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and former Tour de France winner Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ), and this year's strong field could see one of the most exciting GC battles in recent memory.
"If you see the participation and riders start list, you will see that we have almost everyone; all the champions at the start because with a bigger gap between the two races - Giro and Tour - they might try to do both, instead of choosing one of the two," Virelli said.
While moving the race to late May could be a game-changer for the women's Giro d'Italia, Virelli said they won't officially know the impacts of that decision until the race finishes on June 7 in Saluzzo.
Logistically, RCS Sport has added more resources to cover the back-to-back events, and they will split some of the race management and resources across the overlapping weekend of May 30-31.
"It's a strong effort for us. The structure of the men's race will be the same for the women's race; it's necessary. We are not leaving the men's races with resources that are less than minimum, but for a couple of days, we will have a double structure. Some of the staffing will split, the number of ambulances remains the same, and there will be a switch in some of the teams," Virelli said.
"The police structure doesn't change because it is a different department; the men's race is managed by the police from Lombardia, and the women's race is managed by the police from Veneto, so it's a completely different team. We [RCS Sport] have enough people to manage both events. After the [men's Giro] finishes in Rome, almost all of the race management will come back to the Giro Women. It is our first year, but everything is planned to work well."
As far as the race route, the Giro d'Italia Women has always been known for including iconic ascents and challenging routes. This year's women's Giro d'Italia route is no different. It features a balance of sprint stages and mid-mountain stages, but the two key stages are undoubtedly the stage 4 mountain time trial from Belluno to Nevegal and the penultimate stage 8 from Rivoli to Sestriere, featuring the Colle delle Finestre.
"I think we are going to have fun. Especially with the Colle delle Finestre, everyone is enthusiastic about this. It is the first time ever for the women. The riders are happy to compete on this climb. We saw in the last years that when you provide a tough route, the women can compete and do really nice races," Virelli said.
"It is also a well-balanced route with the mountain time trial and together with the Finestre, is the big news, but the first two stages give the possibility of wearing the pink jersey to the sprinters."
RCS Sport aim to take automatic two-year renewal option
From Virelli's perspective, the women's Giro d'Italia has seen steady growth, and she expects that to continue to do so in the years to come.
While the contract to manage the event will end in 2027, she explained that RCS Sport is granted a two-year automatic renewal, which she believes they will accept when the time comes next year.
After that, the management of the event, owned by FCI, will once again enter a tender process, which is a structured, competitive procurement method where FCI will invite qualified organisations to submit a formal bid to manage the event.
"We have a two-year option to continue [for 2028 and 2029]. It is an option to automatically renew for another two years. Then there will be another tender by the Italian Federation. The next tender will then depend on the federation. The Giro d'Italia Women is owned by the Italian Cycling Federation, so it is up to them. I imagine they will need to tender again, but again, it would be a four-year contract plus a two-year option to automatically renew," Virelli said, and she believes RCS Sport will be a front-runner, once again, for the next four-year licensing term.
"We are investing a lot in the event. We really believe that women's cycling has great potential to be explored from all points of view: sponsors, institutions, and now women's sports have huge attention, and cycling is growing very fast, and fans are getting passionate about women's cycling."
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