The 2021 Giro d'Italia will start in Turin. As in 2020, when the Grande Partenza was held in Palermo, Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) is favored to win the opening 9km individual time trial.

The Giro will be held from Saturday, May 8 to Sunday, May 30. Egan Bernal and Vincenzo Nibali are among the favorites to win the overall.

Race organizer RCS Sport has decided on Turin as the starting venue, and the second stage to Novara will offer sprinters a chance for an early victory. Stage 3 will also be held in the Piedmont region, starting in Biella and finishing in Canale, south of Turin.

The Giro will return to the region later in the race, with stage 19 reaching the finish with an elevation gain in Alpe di Mella. The final stage is expected to be a time trial to the center of Milan, giving Ganna another chance to win a stage.

After the early Piemonte stage, the route is expected to head south through the central Apennines, Emilia Romagna, and Puglia, then north through the Strade Bianche in Tuscany and up the Zoncolan in the east.

The last time the Giro was held in Turin was in 2011, when HTC-Highroad won the opening team time trial and Marco Pinotti took his first maglia rosa. Also in 1961, the Grande Partenza was held, and Spain's Miguel Poblet won a sprint victory after a 115-km stage in the rain. At that time, the Giro celebrated the 100th anniversary of the unification of Italy, and this year the race celebrates the 160th anniversary of Turin becoming Italy's first capital.

The three opening stages offer opportunities for three different types of riders.

Time trial world champion Ganna is the clear favorite for the opening stage time trial in central Turin and on the banks of the Po River, while Lemko Evenpole (Detunink-Quickstep) and Pavel Sivakov ( Ineos Grenadiers) also have a chance to gain a few seconds on the other overall contenders.

The second stage from Stupinigi to Novara is for sprinters, with the 173km stage ending on a flat road in the Po Valley. The last time the race finished in Novara, Eddy Merckx won this stage and took his fifth overall win in the pink jersey.

Stage 3 from Biella to Canale, north of the Langewein area, has three small mountain sections and two more in the last 12 km of the 187 km stage. This is a great place for a time attack to get the pink jersey.