Giro d'Italia organizers have dismissed suggestions that the 750-km trip to Rome scheduled for the final parade stage of the 2023 event is bad for the environment, with race director Mauro Veni insisting that RCS Sport is doing enough to limit its carbon footprint and environmental damage. emissions and damage to the environment.

The 2023 Giro d'Italia will be a three-week race around Bel Paese, covering 3,448 km. The final time trial will take place in Monte Russari in northeastern Italy, followed by a trip approximately 750 km south to the capital, Rome, for the final circuit stage. Athletes and staff will travel by chartered flight, and hundreds of team and race vehicles will participate in this long migration.

The 2023 Giro d'Italia was scheduled to end in Trieste in the northeast, but for financial reasons and a three-year contract with the capital, Rome appears to be the final choice.

This year's 10th stage of the Tour de France was marred by climate protests that led to the cancellation of the Tour de France and a growing debate about pro cycling's footprint and what can and should be done about it.

Veni dismissed questions about the last 750 km of travel to Rome.

"I don't think one charter flight from northern Italy to Rome is worse than thousands of scheduled flights daily. The solution? I think that is a sterile polemic. [There are] many ways to respect and support the environment. We need to look at the entire footprint of the sport, sit down together and decide what we can do about it."

While RCS Sport uses electric vehicles and recycles, the Giro d'Italia caravan of hundreds of vehicles and thousands of people travels throughout Italy.

Veni emphasized that the Giro d'Italia is much smaller than the Tour de France and other major sporting events, with less travel between stages.

"Except for the final leg to Rome, we have reduced travel to the bare minimum. We also recycle and have done a lot to help the environment. We could do more, but I think we are doing a lot," he argued.

Veni was also dismissive of the annual debate about which Grand Tour contenders will and will not compete in the 2023 Giro d'Italia.

The 70.6 km time trial seems like a way to tempt Lemko Evenpoel and perhaps Primoš Roglic to run the 2023 Giro d'Italia, but the mountain stages are also tough. Veni, of course, believes that his race is more important than the riders.

"I think there's a chance Lemko will ride the Giro next year, but I'm honestly a little tired of all the talk about who will ride the Giro and who won't. That's not what cycling is about. [Great races like the Giro d'Italia, Tour, and Vuelta will remain. It is the races that make the riders famous, not the other way around. If this year's Tour de France winner, Jonas Vingegaard, had not won the Tour, no one would be talking about him as much as they are now. So whoever rides the Giro and wins it, it's a great rider."

Veni is proud to call the Giro d'Italia the hardest of the three Grand Tours, even if the Tour de France is far more important in the sport.

"No disrespect to the other races, but the Giro is widely considered the hardest Grand Tour.

"Other races may have more pressure, more name recognition, and higher expectations, but the Giro is second to none when it comes to the beauty and difficulty of the route.

The Giro is a combination of two things. It is both a great race and a showcase of Italian beauty, culture, and lifestyle. Cycling combines sport and culture in a unique way."