Major cycling race to conclude in Rome’s ancient chariot-racing arena.
The 109th edition of the Giro d’Italia will conclude in Rome on Sunday 31 May 2026, with this year’s final stage marking the first time the race has finished at the Circus Maximus.
The prestigious sporting event, covering 3,459 kilometres in total, begins in Bulgaria on 8 May and concludes three weeks later in the Italian capital.
The grand finale incorporates the historic centre as well as the coast at Ostia, taking in numerous Roman landmarks along the way including the Colosseum and the Baths of Caracalla.
Rome route
Stage 21, the final leg, is a 131-kilometre circuit beginning and ending in Rome. After an approach section from the EUR district to the Ostia coast and back, riders complete eight laps of a 9.5-km city circuit.
The route features a mix of short undulations and long straights, with some sections of the Roman cobblestones known as sampietrini. The final 350-metre straight is on asphalt, eight metres wide, with a five per cent gradient in the last kilometre.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony at city hall on Wednesday, Urbano Cairo, president of RCS – the organiser of the race – described the Rome finale as “spectacular, truly very beautiful, a sort of open-air museum.”
Day of celebration
Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri stated that it will be “a day of celebration that will accompany the passage of the race and once again convey the energy and beauty of the capital to millions of people”.
This will be the eighth time the Giro d’Italia has culminated in Rome, after previous Roman editions in 1911, 1950, 2009, 2018 and the last three years in a row.
Rome’s tourism and sports councillor Alessandro Onorato said that bringing the race to the capital had been the city’s ambition for several years: “Four years ago we managed to bring the Giro d’Italia’s grand finale to Rome and it was a novelty. Today it has become the norm, and that was the challenge we set ourselves and won.”
He added that Rome was asserting itself as “the great capital of major Italian events.”
The 2025 edition of the men’s race was won by British champion Simon Yates.
Photo credit: Marco Crupi / Shutterstock.com
