Giro d’Italia 2026 Stage 21 Preview | Last chance saloon for many sprinters, who will come out on top in Rome?

Why finish with brutally hard racing when, on the final day of a Grand Tour, you can also calmly uncork some prosecco before a few mandatory laps of the Colosseum? We are being more than a little cynical, but the finish in Rome of course has its charm too. One last chance for the fast men, who have survived all those mountains. IDL Pro Cycling looks ahead.

The 21st stage in Rome has been on the calendar for several years now, as the closing act of an always gruelling Giro. That we do not go very deep here, à la Paris, is only logical. The riders finished in northern Italy on Saturday, so there is still a long journey to the Italian capital on the programme.

That is why the riders will only get going at 3.45 p.m. on Sunday, with the finish expected around 6.45 p.m. The route is straightforward: sign-on at the Quadrato della Concordia, in front of a beautiful building in Rome. After a very short neutralised section, kilometre 0 is on the Via Cristoforo Colombo.

From there it will be fairly calm for a while, on the way to Ostio, where things should kick off after 23.1 kilometres for the intermediate sprint. Once enough has been toasted, the riders will pass the finish line on Via del Circo Massimo for the first time after 55 kilometres. From there it is eight more laps of battle on a 9.5-kilometre circuit.

Unlike the start location, the organisers have chosen the same finish as last year. That means another technical lap, with the finish line sitting slightly uphill — false flat, if you like. That was no problem for Olav Kooij on behalf of Visma | Lease a Bike last year, but timing mattered a lot.

Times
Start: 3:45 p.m CET
Finish: around 6:45 p.m CET

It will be warm on Sunday, but not as hot as in previous years in Rome. Temperatures will rise to a maximum of 30 degrees Celsius, but by the finish it will already have cooled to around 25. The hottest part of the day will therefore be avoided.

Sprinters of the Giro, report for duty! For three weeks they have had to suffer, with a 100 per cent sprint chance in Milan on day 15 also being thrown away. In Naples on day 6, a crash left only a sprint-à-deux. The sprint teams will not let another sprint slip away now; the breakaway would really need a peloton full of motorbikes for that.

The clear favourite is Paul Magnier, the only rider to win sprints in this Giro d’Italia: three in total. The Frenchman from Soudal Quick-Step has already comfortably beaten Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek twice, while Dylan Groenewegen of Unibet Rose Rockets came close once. Tobias Lund Andresen of Decathlon CMA CGM also started well, but rode for a long time while not fully fit.

At Alpecin-Premier Tech, Jensen Plowright will be the designated card, Bahrain Victorious will do their best for Edoardo Zambanini, and at the invisible Groupama-FDJ United they will hope for a surprise from Paul Penhoët. And then, besides Groenewegen, there is another Dutch card at Team Picnic PostNL Raisin: Casper van Uden.

Netcompany INEOS have a nice candidate in Ben Turner, possibly also fresher than others after three weeks. That also applies to the sprinters who climbed better in this Giro, such as Orluis Aular of Movistar, Corbin Strong of NSN, Giovanni Lonardi of Polti-VisitMalta, Luca Mozzato of Tudor and Matteo Malucelli of XDS Astana.

Top favorites: Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) and Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets)