Ladies, start your engines. The Giro d’Italia Women is here.
Yes, the second Grand Tour of the women’s calendar is right on our doorstep, with nine stages scheduled to start this weekend in northern Italy, stretching from Saturday 30th May until Sunday 7th June 2026. This year’s route features several important GC days, with a mountain time-trial on Stage 4 and a pivotal Stage 8, which covers the gravelled slopes of the Colle delle Finestre.
The favourites for pink include former Tour and Vuelta winner Demi Vollering, last year’s runner-up Marlen Reusser and reigning two-time champion Elisa Longo Borghini. Some of the sprinters set to start the Corsa Rosa are gravel World Champion Lorena Wiebes, a refreshed Charlotte Kool and Irish talent Lara Gillespie, while other star names heading to Italy include rainbow jersey wearer Magdeleine Vallieres, British star Cat Ferguson and four-time Giro winner Anna van der Breggen.
Before we get engrossed in another dollop of Grand Tour action, we’ve consulted our crystals to cast some predictions. Three of us at Cyclist have put what’s left of our reputations on the line in the name of calling the winner of the general, points, mountains and youth classifications, with a bonus prediction in for good measure.
Will Strickson, web editor
Will was brave enough to back Anna van der Breggen for the Vuelta, which was a good call in hindsight. Unfortunately, that inspired him to predict a Giulio Pellizzari victory in the men’s Giro. God loves a chancer.
GC: Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez)
I really tried to convince myself someone else would win this, however I’ve been a Demi Vollering truther for a long time and with no challenge from TdFF 2025 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, this race should see Vollering complete her Grand Tour set.
Points: Charlotte Kool (Fenix-Premier Tech)
I’ll preface this boldest of predictions by shouting out the sprint field here; it is absolutely stacked. Now, Wiebes is far and away the favourite, but she’s not invincible and I think she’s going to get complacent. Charlotte Kool has escaped the black hole of Picnic-PostNL, is winning races again at the perfect time, and has a strong sprint train here to guide her to the right spots.
Cast your minds back to the Tour de France Femmes 2024. The Grand Depart is in the Netherlands. It’s pan flat. There are two sprint stages to kick things off. Stage 1: Charlotte Kool wins, Lorena Wiebes 41st (there were issues that caused her to drop back). Stage 2: Charlotte Kool wins, Lorena Wiebes 2nd. I predicted Kool’s greatness that year and I’m doing it again.
Mountains: Mireia Benito (AG Insurance-Soudal)
This is always the hardest one to call. I don’t think it goes to the GC riders/I’d prefer it didn’t, but picking a rider that will get in the right place and climb well enough to get enough points to hold off Vollering is tricky. With that in mind, I’m going to hope Mireia Benito is allowed to get stuck in. She’s in great form having just finished fourth at the Vuelta a Burgos, and with both Lore De Schepper and Urška Žigart sure to lead the team’s overall charge after good performances at the Vuelta Feminina, Benito shouldn’t need to be on domestique duties.
Youth: Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek)
Isabella Holmgren is the future of women’s cycling. May I present the GC results of last year’s Tour de l’Avenir (which included big mountains and a mountain TT, just like this Giro):
- Isabella Holmgren
- Marion Bunel +1min 16sec
- Talia Appleton +4min 6sec
- Lore De Schepper +6min 2sec
- Eleonora Ciabocco +6min 32sec
- Paula Blasi +8min 40sec
No contest. Canada has yet another hero in women’s cycling.
Bonus: Ins/outs a la 2024 New Years lists
I’m going to present my extra prediction in the form of the in/out lists that took over New Years Resolutions in 2024. I shall be declaring five riders I am ‘in’ on and five riders I am ‘out’ on at this race. Capiche?
In: Antonia Niedermaier, Lauren Dickson, Lara Gillespie, Marlen Reusser, Niamh Fisher-Black
Out: Anna van der Breggen, Elisa Longo Borghini, Elisa Balsamo, Justine Ghekiere, Magdeleine Vallieres (hedge your bets, if you know you know)
Ewan Wilson, staff writer
I made some pretty stinky predictions for the Vuelta Femenina last month, but my calls for the men’s Giro look slightly better. I say that, but the only thing I’ve got correct is a Vingegaard victory (and it didn’t take Mystic Meg to forecast that).
General: Demi Vollering
They say good things come to those who wait. They’re in luck, because it’s been half a decade since Demi Vollering last raced the Giro d’Italia.
The FDJ leader is the unwavering favourite for a comeback Giro title, having spent most of the spring in untouchable form. Since then, Vollering’s been spotted here, there and everywhere above 2,000m, including a snow-covered Colle delle Finestre. That altitude training should have her in mint condition ahead of a Giro that suits her down to a T.
Points: Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime)
God forbid Lorena Wiebes lets someone else win a sprint. The Dutchwoman has lost just one bunch sprint this year, meaning her conversion rate on sprint finishes sits at just over 90%. I’m no mathematician, but that figure fills me with enough confidence that she’ll win the points jersey with ease.
Mountains: Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ)
I’m pretty 50/50 on whether the GC favourites will contest the mountains jersey or whether it’ll go to a breakaway. Stages 5 and 8 offer some first-category tests, but that could be cancelled out by the likes of Vollering on Stage 4’s mountain time-trial or the penultimate day up the Finestre.
For the sake of difference, I’ll be optimistic and say Mavi García will win the maglia azzurra in her final Giro. She’s often gone well on Italian roads, and I reckon UAE Team ADQ will end up focusing on breakaways once Elisa Longo Borghini starts to shed big time in the overall standings.
Youth: Isabella Holmgren
Visma’s Marion Bunel would be the sensible pick for the white jersey, given she made the podium of the Vuelta last month. However, I am deciding to place all my chips on Canadian talent Isabella Holmgren.
The 21-year-old has been massively impressive since her top ten finish on Giro debut last year, scoring a first Monument podium at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and a dominant Tour de l’Avenir win. The Finestre stage at this year’s race looks perfect for the Canadian, and I reckon she’s got better Classics legs than Bunel on the rolling stages that punctuate this Giro parcours.
Lauren Dickson’s rise to the WorldTour has been atypical, but phenomenal. Just a year after setting the domestic scene alight, the 26-year-old Scot has been bagging top five results at the world’s biggest races in Spain. The FDJ United-Suez rider is in brilliant form at the minute and it feels as though she’s on the brink of something big here at the Giro.
Robyn Davidson, web writer
At the Vuelta, Robyn had the clairvoyance to see a Bunel white jersey run, can she go two for two here at the Giro?
General: Demi Vollering
The reign of Demi Vollering in Italy begins now. The Dutchwoman slots in right on top as the favourite heading into the race. With a stage race victory already at Setmana Ciclista Valenciana and one-day Classics in the bag, there’s no slowing down this one-woman train on her crusade to dominate the Grand Tours. She can complete the set with victory here having already added the Vuelta and Tour to her envious palmarès.
Points: Lorena Wiebes
It’s Lorena Wiebes. Unstoppable. Genuinely. How can you look past her?
Mountains: Demi Vollering
Predictable? Yes. But these are predictions, are they not? And my reputation is at stake for whiffing on about 90% of mine throughout my Cyclist career. There’s not a huge Category 1/2 summit finish for Vollering to do damage on (aside from the uphill time-trial, I guess) so she has to make long, hard moves to establish herself at the top of the hierarchy. This will inevitably come on ascents, with points being swept up at the top.
Youth: Marion Bunel
Folks, I can’t wait to see the youth classification battle. Ewan and Will have gone for Isabella Holmgren – a great shout – but I’m all in on my girl Marion Bunel.
The 21-year-old Visma-Lease a Bike rider arrives having scored a fourth place finish atop L’Angliru and a third place overall at La Vuelta Femenina. She also won atop the Finestre back in 2024 during the Tour de l’Avenir Femmes, which features on Stage 8. Holmgren finished second then, and the standings would be reversed the following year. Lock in.
Only time will tell how Marlen Reusser rides on her first race back having fractured her lumbar vertebra at Dwars door Vlaanderen, but she has steadily been developing into quite the GC rider for Movistar, and held the maglia rosa heading into the decisive mountains last season.
Things were looking good for her first Grand Tour title yet gastro issues pushed her down into second and she was leapfrogged by Elisa Longo Borghini and later became the first to abandon the Tour through illness too. It’s been a long road back to Italy, but hopefully she manages to scrape through with no incident and remind us how an illness-free Reusser races.