Genoa – Giro d’Italia 2024 takes off today at the Trento Sports Festival. After announcing the Great Departure from Piedmont, RCS presents the 107th pink race. In Liguria the attention is focused on two stages: the fourth, Acqui Terme-Andora which will be developed largely in the Savona area; the fifth, Genoa-Lucca. As anticipated by Secolo XIX, before returning to Liguria there is the start in Piedmont. Saturday 4 May begins with the Venaria Reale-Turin (136 km), three passages over the Superga hill, a tribute to the 75th anniversary of the Grande Torino tragedy. On Sunday 5th the dedication is for Pantani: San Francesco al Campo-Santuario di Oropa (150 km) with final on the ascent where the Pirate unleashed a prodigious comeback. Third day as sprinters: Novara-Fossano (165 km) with a slight final stretch. Then, here is Liguria for a Giro that strongly hopes to have the Slovenian champion Tadej Pogacar at the start, fresh from his third triumph at the Giro di Lombardia.
After Parma-Genoa and Sanremo-Cuneo in 2022, there is the return of the pink race but this time the Ligurian kilometers will be many more. Tuesday 7 May we start from Acqui Terme and end in Andora which prevailed over the other candidates, Varazze and Savona, still the protagonist of the fraction. The official route will be revealed today, there may be surprises right up to the last moment. But the latest rumors say that the stage will be about 200 km long, in theory it will be for sprinters but there will be climbs that could encourage attacks from afar, such as Melogno and Passo Bresca. Among the locations visited there will be Cairo, Calizzano, Carcare, Mallare, Altare. Then the Cadibona to get to Savona, where a tour is planned in the heart of the city before returning in front of the Torretta and continuing towards the finish line on the Milan-Sanremo roads. And even the last km will be spectacular, with the passage over Capo Mele, protagonist of the Laigueglia and a circuit that will enhance the finale on Andora before the eventual sprint.
Savonese returns to the Giro d’Italia after 9 years from Albenga-Genova in 2015, second stage of the Grande Partenza organized by Enzo Grenno. And this time too, he was responsible for the stage (and the subsequent departure from Genoa), the point man for RCS in Liguria, who had already designed the two stages of 2012 (Savona-Cervere) and 2014 (Collecchio-Savona). Seeing the Giro again in the province of Savona was not a given. On the contrary. In 2020, the Milan-Sanremo held in August due to the pandemic had seen the opposition of many mayors of the Savonese area due to traffic and health reasons and this had caused tensions with RCS which had launched an alternative route, passing through Piedmont and landing in Liguria from the province of Imperia. Then, however, the Classicissima returned to the original route and in 2022, Pecs had started from around thirty municipalities in the Savona area and expressed their willingness to RCS to host the Giro. A wish that will come true with Acqui Terme-Andora. Given the premises, the stage conceived by Grenno, which will touch around forty municipalities (out of 69) in the Savonese area, represents a real sporting and organizational undertaking.
Liguria will also be pink on Wednesday 8 May: departure from Genoa and landing in Lucca for another stage of about 200 km. As for the arrival in Genoa in 2015, a city circuit is planned, a catwalk for the group which could start from De Ferrari, then reach Corso Italia and from there move up to the Quarto Monument. There, where Garibaldi’s Thousand left, there will be the official start. The runners will pass through the Tigullio, then after Chiavari they will climb the Bracco and continue along the province of La Spezia (probably without entering Spezia) and then enter Tuscany up to Lucca, the city of Mario Cipollini, on a day that will probably end as the Lion King liked it, with a sprint. The pink race will continue south on the Tyrrhenian side and will go north on the Adriatic side. The 2024 Giro d’Italia will pass through Livigno, home to Sampdoria’s last summer training camp, and will see Grappa as the last mountain before the grand finale in Rome on Sunday 26 May.
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