Giro d'Italia cycling race to start in Bulgaria for the first time next year
Kyiv • UNN
The 2026 Giro d'Italia Grand Tour will start in Bulgaria for the first time, marking the third start in the Balkans in its history. This continues the practice of starting abroad, which has a positive impact on host countries and Italian exports.
Next year, the Grand Tour cycling race "Giro d'Italia" will start in Bulgaria, for the first time for a Balkan country, organizers from RCS Sport announced on Friday, UNN reports with reference to AFP.
Details
This will be the second consecutive year and the third year in history that the Giro d'Italia will start in the Balkans. Earlier this year, the races started in Durrës (Albania), and in 1996 - in Athens (Greece).
"We started last May in Albania, and next year we will go to Bulgaria," said RCS owner and president Urbano Cairo on the sidelines of the Sports Festival organized by the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper, also owned by RCS.
"These 'Grande Partenze' abroad have a positive impact both on the countries from which we start and on Italians who discover new lands," Cairo added.
"We stimulate Italian exports, and the Giro is an ambassador of sport around the world," he added.
This will be the 16th time that the cycling race, which runs from May 9 to 31, will start abroad.
Since 2010, such starts have become much more frequent: seven of the 16 starts have taken place abroad, including in Jerusalem in 2018.
Addition
British rider Simon Yates won the Giro in May after a daring solo attack on the penultimate mountain stage that allowed him to overtake Mexican Isaac del Toro and Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz.