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Giro d'Italia Women 2024

The longest-running women's stage race is back with a new direction and new organisation for 2024

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Giro d'Italia Women
Giro d'Italia Women
  • Dates 7 Jul - 14 Jul
  • Race Length 856 kms
  • Race Category Elite Women

Updated: December 12, 2023

Giro d’Italia Women 2024: a guide to the oldest stage race in women's cycling

The Giro d’Italia Women, taking place from July 7 to 14 in 2024, is one of the biggest stage races on the Women’s WorldTour calendar, and the women’s equivalent of the Italian men’s Grand Tour. It was formerly known as the Giro d’Italia Donne, but has been rebranded for 2024.

Unlike the relatively new Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and Vuelta Femenina, the women's Giro has been around for several decades now, after first being raced in 1988.

Early winners of the race included Italian stars Maria Canins and Fabiana Luperini, whilst recent editions have been dominated by Annemiek van Vleuten and Anna van der Breggen. Marianne Vos has also enjoyed a long supremacy at the Giro, winning over 30 stages so far, plus three overall titles in her heyday as a GC rider.

Thanks to its difficulty, length and history, the race is one of the most prestigious on the calendar, and in recent years has been the closest equivalent to a Grand Tour for the women’s peloton – eight to 10 days in length, taking in a variety of stages, and usually decided in the mountains.

In 2024, the race is taking on a new lease of life, as for the first time it is being run by men’s Giro d’Italia organisers RCS. After some difficult years under previous owners, which included poor organisation, lack of TV coverage, and even a demotion from the WorldTour, the new direction of the Giro d’Italia Women is expected to usher in more professionalism and marketing as the race becomes officially linked to the men’s version.

Giro d’Italia Women 2024 schedule, past results & previous winners

When is the Giro d’Italia Women 2024? The 2024 edition of the Giro d’Italia Women will start on Sunday, July 7 and run until Sunday, July 14.

Where does the Giro d’Italia Women take place? The Giro d’Italia takes place in Italy. It starts in Brescia, in Lombardy, and finishes in L'Aquila, in Abruzzo.

Who won the Giro d’Italia Women in 2023? The 2023 edition was won by Annemiek van Vleuten in her final Giro before retiring. It was her fourth pink jersey win, bringing her level with long-term GC rival Anna van der Breggen on number of wins.

Who won the first Giro d’Italia Women? The first women’s Giro was won by Italy’s Maria Canins, when the race took place for the first time in 1988.

Who has the most wins at the Giro d’Italia? Italy’s Fabiana Luperini holds the title for the most overall Giro victories, with five - four of which were consecutive between 1995 and 1998. The stage wins record belongs to Marianne Vos, who has 32 victories in this race.

Giro d’Italia Women 2024 route

Revealed in December in Milan, the route for the 2024 Giro d'Italia Women features an assortment on eight tough and varied stages. Starting with a time trial in Brescia in the north, the race traverses south, taking in sprint stages, punchy days, medium climbing, and then a big, climb-heavy final weekend in Abruzzo.

Stage 7 to Blockhaus is set to be the race's Queen stage, and likely where the pink jersey will be decided, with the peloton taking on two ascents of the Passo Lanciano, with the second extending further up to Blockhaus and a 1,600m finish. Stage 8 is far from a final-day jolly, though, with plenty more climbing on the cards, and a chance for the final classification to change.

For a full rundown of the route, head to our route reveal story: Giro d’Italia Women 2024 route revealed: Blockhaus headlines 8-day race

Who are the riders to watch at the Giro d’Italia Women 2024?

With Annemiek van Vleuten following Anna van der Breggen into retirement at the end of 2023, the Giro d’Italia is set to have its first new winner eight years in 2024 - the Dutch pair have won every edition since 2017. But who are the top contenders to take home the pink jersey? With programmes yet to be confirmed, nothing is certain, but there are plenty of riders who are almost certain to take aim at the Giro in 2024.

2022 runner-up and home favourite Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ) will surely be top of the list of favourites come next July, as the Italian has been building towards GC contender status for a few seasons now. A crash in the inaugural Tour de France Femmes and its lingering effects have left Cavalli not at her best since her trip to the Giro podium in 2022, but she’s been building back up to form and confidence and looks set to take on 2024 at full tilt. A strong climber with a good kick, she will excel in the climbs in Italy.

Another homegrown talent who already has a Giro podium finish under her belt is Lidl-Trek’s Gaia Realini. Though only a young rider at 22, she should be taken as a real contender for the overall at the Giro, having finished third in both the Giro and the Vuelta in 2023. The diminutive climber clearly has a strength in one-week racing, and with Lidl-Trek only getting stronger, she will be a real threat for the overall win.

The other podium finisher from 2023’s race is Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich) and whilst the French rider may have more affinity for her home Grand Tour, she’s often impressed more in Italy. She was one of the closest riders to Van Vleuten in 2023, and will be hoping that the more open race in 2024 will play into her advantage.

Lastly, you can’t talk about a Grand Tour and not mention SD Worx, the team that have dominated racing of all kinds on the women’s calendar in recent years. With Van Vleuten retired, they’ll be looking to reclaim pink after last winning the Giro in 2021, but who with? It’s likely that Demi Vollering will focus her efforts on defending her Tour de France Femmes title, but with a bigger gap between the Giro and Tour in 2024, could she make an attempt at both? Other than Vollering, SD Worx may look to their younger climber Niamh Fisher-Black has found freedom and opportunity at the Giro in recent years, but just needs the team support to help her.

Which teams are racing the Giro d’Italia Women 2024?

The 2024 Giro d’Italia Donne will be contested by all 15 Women’s WorldTour teams, the two best-performing Continental teams, plus a selection of seven other wildcard Continental teams, which will no doubt lean towards the Italian squads.

What happened in the Giro d’Italia Women 2023?

The 2023 edition of the Giro d’Italia Women - or the Giro d’Italia Donne, as it was named then - was won by Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) in a dominant display in her final season of racing. As is often her MO, the Dutchwoman was unmatched on the hardest stages of the race, winning three of the ten stages to secure her fourth overall victory.

Second place on GC went to France’s Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich), whilst Italian stand-out Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) took third, her second podium finish in a Grand Tour.

One of the biggest stories of the Giro was Elisa Longo Borghini’s (Lidl-Trek) race - initially, she looked like a real threat to Van Vleuten’s GC tilt, and she won stage 4 ahead of the defending champion, but a dramatic crash on stage 5 then ultimately saw the end of her race.

Read more from the 2023 race:

Plus, check out all the news, highlights, stage results and standings from the 2023 edition of the Giro d'Italia Donne here.

Giro d’Italia Women history

The history of the Giro d’Italia Women, under its many names and forms over the years, traces back to 1988 when the first edition of a women’s Giro was raced. Its name back then was the Giro d’Italia Femminile, and the race format was similar to the present day version: an eight stage race with a time trial in the middle, and enough climbing to make the GC a tough challenge. That edition was won by Maria Canins, one of the best stage racers of that era who also won two editions of the Tour de France Féminin.

After a brief hiatus at the start of the 1990s, the Giro returned in 1993 and this decade was defined by Fabiana Luperini, a legend of Italian cycling who won four editions in a row. She was a dominant force at her home race, winning 13 stages in total, a rare performance in an era where riders often struggled to stay at the top for several years.

Into the 2000s and the new millennium, the Giro was the centre point of women’s cycling which was changing, but not without a sense of precarity. Whilst many longer races struggled for sponsorship and support in the 2000s, and many folded, the Giro is one of the few constants that has survived all the way from the 1980s until now. Most of the biggest names of that era took Giro wins: Nicole Brändli and Nicole Cooke, before the emergence of the likes of Marianne Vos and Mara Abbott burst onto the scene at the end of the decade.

In more recent history, the Giro has been defined by riders like Vos, Anna van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten. The latter pair have won eight of the last nine editions between them, whilst Vos has picked up 32 stage wins over in Italy. Before the launch of the Tour de France Femmes, the Giro was the pinnacle of stage racing on the women’s calendar, and the main goal for most of the GC riders and climbers in the peloton.

For a longer look at the history of the Giro d’Italia Women, explore this article from 2023: A brief history of the Giro d’Italia Donne

Previous winners of the Giro d'Italia Women

2023 Annemiek van Vleuten

2022 Annemiek van Vleuten

2021 Anna van der Breggen

2020 Anna van der Breggen

2019 Annemiek van Vleuten

2018 Annemiek van Vleuten

2017 Anna van der Breggen

2016 Megan Guarnier

2015 Anna van der Breggen

2014 Marianne Vos

2013 Mara Abbott

2012 Marianne Vos

2011 Marianne Vos

2010 Mara Abbott

2009 Claudia Lichtenberg

2008 Fabiana Luperini

2007 Edita Pučinskaitè

2006 Edita Pučinskaitè

2005 Nicole Brändli

2004 Nicole Cook

2003 Nicole Brändli

2002 Svetlana Stolbova

2001 Nicole Brändli

2000 Joane Somarriba

1999 Joane Somarriba

1998 Fabiana Luperini

1997 Fabiana Luperini

1996 Fabiana Luperini

1995 Fabiana Luperini

1994 Michela Fanini

1993 Lenka Ilavská

1990 Catherine Marsal

1989 Roberta Bonanomi

1988 Maria Canins

Major Races

See All

29 Jun - 21 Jul

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Tour de France

2.UWT

12 Aug - 18 Aug

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Tour de France Femmes

2.WWT

4 May - 26 May

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Giro d'Italia

2.UWT

28 Apr - 5 May

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Vuelta España Femenina

2.WWT

Provided by FirstCycling

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