Video: 2019 Giro d'Italia to start with uphill time trial in Bologna

Bologna will host the opening stage of the 2019 Giro d’Italia with a short uphill individual time trial to one of the Emilia-Romagna capital’s best known sights, the Sanctuary of the Madonna of San Luca, which sits on a wooded hilltop above the city.

It’s the first of five stages that will be hosted in whole or part in the central Italian region.  Stage 2 also starts in the ancient university city with a destination as yet unknown, while the other two fall in the middle of the race.

The opening stage on 11 May 2019 – 200 metres too long to be classified as a Prologue – finishes with a 2.1-kilometre climb with an average gradient of 9.7 per cent, peaking at 16 per cent towards the top, that organisers RCS Sport believe will see the overall contenders join battle from the outset.

Stage 9 is another one against the clock, beginning in Riccione, which neighbours Rimini on the Adriatic coast and is the location of road.cc’s annual Italian week – some newly resurfaced roads for us next year, hopefully.

It finishes in the world’s oldest republic, San Marino, with the parcours heading steadily uphill in the second half of its 34.7 kilometres.

The following day’s Stage 10, meanwhile, is as flat as a Giro d’Italia stage comes, covering 147 kilometres through the Po Valley from Ravenna – the one-time capital of the Western Roman Empire – to Modena.

Stage 11 begins in Carpi and will then head westwards and out of Emilia Romagna, with the regions of Liguria. Piedmont and Lombardy all potential destinations.

The location of the various stages confirmed today suggests that Stages 2 to 8 will be played out to the south of Emilia-Romagna, with the final week or so of the race featuring mountains in the northwest corner of the country, the peloton then heading eastwards, suggesting a visit to the Dolomites is in prospect.