It’s time to say buongiorno, or rather përshëndetje, to the first men’s Grand Tour of the year. If that second word doesn’t look familiar to you, it means ‘hello’ in Albanian, the language of the country hosting this May's Giro d’Italia Grande Partenza.
Now in its 108th edition, this year marks the first time the race has begun in the Balkan country. Albania will host the opening three stages, starting in the coastal city of Durrës, before the peloton hops across the Adriatic sea, and onto Italian soil.
It should all make for very scenic racing. But why is the Giro d’Italia – a race with Italy in its very name – starting in Albania?
For decades, Grand Tours have offered out their opening stages, also known as Grands Départs, to other countries. The deals come as an opportunity to gain international exposure, as well as boosted income for the race organisers, who earn a fee for ‘selling’ the event.
The first time the Giro began away from Italy was in 1965, after more than five decades of starts predominately from Milan. That year, the race rolled out from neighbouring San Marino. The following year it left from Monaco, and in 1973, from Belgium. In fact, of 108 editions of the Giro, this year will be the 15th to start abroad.
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How much does a foreign start cost?
The fees for hosting a Grand Tour start vary depending on place and plans. It has been reported that the deal for this year’s Albanian Grande Partenza is worth around €7 million. Historically, these costs have ballooned, once extra measures like security, road works, and other logistics have been accounted for.
In the Giro’s last foreign start in 2022, for example, the Hungarian government put aside €24 million to host the race. These costs can end up even more expensive for the more well-known Tour de France; in 2014, the UK’s Tour Grand Départ rose from an initial £4.2 million fee paid to the organiser ASO up to £29.4 million for the hosts.
Do other countries bid to host Grand Tours?
There is no formal bidding process for countries who wish to host a Grand Départ. Unlike the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics, where countries file bids and the host is decided in a vote, preparing a pitch for a Grand Tour start is more informal.
Typically, a country’s national body will reach out to the race organiser – RCS in the Giro d’Italia’s case, and ASO for the Tour de France and Vuelta a España – to open discussions.
Plans are then laid out for the stages, and if the organiser finds the idea convincing enough, a fee will be decided. This can be particularly lucrative for organisers, who in the case of all three men’s Grand Tours, are independent event management companies.
How does the race manage the extra travel?
To help facilitate foreign starts, cycling’s governing body, the UCI, allows an extra ‘travel day’ at a Grand Tour every four years.
This year’s Giro begins a day early – on Friday instead of its usual Saturday slot – to accommodate a travel day from stage three’s finish in Vlorë, Albania to the start of stage four in Alberello, Italy.
Riders, typically, will fly from one country to another to minimise time spent travelling. Team buses and logistics trucks, such as those carrying barriers and start-finish gantries, might spend an entire day driving from one place to another.
One of the furthest-flung Grands Départs in history was when the Giro began in Israel in 2018. The event marked the first Grand Tour start outside of Europe, and required an extensive logistical operation, with a Boeing 747 cargo plane booked to carry bikes more than 2,000km from Israel back to Italy.
Where else has the Giro d’Italia started in the past?
This year is the 15th time in the history of the Giro d’Italia that the race has begun outside of Italy. Here are the other countries that have hosted the Grand Tour:
1965 - San Marino
1966 - Monaco
1973 - Belgium
1974 - Vatican City
1996 - Greece
1998 - France
2002 - Netherlands
2006 - Belgium
2010 - Netherlands
2012 - Denmark
2014 - Northern Ireland
2016 - Netherlands
2018 - Israel
2022 - Hungary
2025 - Albania
The first Grand Tour foreign start came in 1954, when the Tour de France opened in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It wasn’t until 1997 that the Vuelta a España first started abroad, then doing so in Lisbon, Portugal.
