2007 Giro D'Italia - Route and Stages

Route and Stages

Race director Angelo Zomegnan commented that the route was designed to be easier than that of the extremely climbing-intensive 2006 Giro. The Giro's twenty-one stages were divided into the following classifications: three time trials (one team and two individual), eleven flat or undulating stages (officially there was no distinction made between flat and undulating), four intermediate stages, and three mountain stages. The race began with a team time trial on the island of Sardinia. This was followed by two flat stages and an unusually early rest day to transfer from Sardinia to Italy's mainland. The riders transferred by plane while the Giro caravan, race officials and team cars made the trip by boat. The final stage, as was tradition, was a flat, mostly ceremonial road stage to Milan, finishing with ten circuits on the Corso Venezia of the Via Montenapoleone.

There were three stages that began or ended outside Italy. Stage 12, the first high mountain stage, ended at the French city Briançon, a frequent destination for the Tour de France. The 16th stage ended at Lienz in Austria, and the 17th began there.

Five stages ended with climbs. Stage 4, the first intermediate stage, ended at Montevergine di Mercogliano at 1,260 m (4,130 ft). The tenth stage, also classified intermediate, had a less imposing final climb of 760 m (2,490 ft), but it was nonetheless expected to change the race's overall standings as it was very long it had numerous small climbs. Stage 13 was a climbing time trial, to Santuario di Oropa at 1,142 m (3,747 ft), with gradients on the climb reaching as high as 13%. Two stages later was perhaps the race's most difficult stage, featuring four major climbs and ending at 2,304 m (7,559 ft) at Tre Cime di Lavaredo. The last mountaintop arrival was in the seventeenth stage, and featured one of the hardest climbs in the world, Monte Zoncolan. Though the summit of this climb was lesser than some other peaks visited in the race, at 1,730 m (5,680 ft), its gradients were crushing, with the steepest stretches reaching over 20% incline. Though the number of mountain stages was small, it was nonetheless expected that it would take a strong climber to win the race.