Stumbling into the Giro d'Italia Finale in Rome
I have followed professional road cycling for nearly 15 years, watching and following up to date stage info for most of the grand tours, women’s tours, and various classics and other races in between, but we have yet to see a professional race in person. In our travels we have often come geographically close to some of these tour stages, whether the Tour de France or Giro Donne, but always found the logistics just too difficult or out of reach to be worthwhile.
So, it was to our ultimate surprise when we learned that we serendipitously happened to be in Rome during the final stage of the 2023 edition of the Giro D’italia. The Giro has not passed through Rome for the past 5 years. We did not even make this realization until a couple weeks prior to leaving for our trip - it was such a surprise that we had booked some of the only museum tickets purchased during our stay for…the exact 2 hour block the race would be coming through central Rome. To top it off, the apartment we were renting was ON the race course. The preset plans were quickly abandoned in favor of watching some of our racing idols scream through central Rome for 6 circuit loops before finishing amidst the Colosseum backdrop.
Everyone’s favorite goat herder, looking resplendent in the mountains jersey on the streets of Rome.
In fact, we sort of centered our entire day around the race activities. First, wandering the city checking out some of the race village setup. Next, we watched the family friendly cyclovia come through, and wished we had realized this was an event and rented a bike or hopped on a citybike to participate! We also got to witness some really sad tourists attempt to get themselves and their heavy luggage out of the center of Rome which was all but closed off to car traffic.
We came out once again to see the race Caravan roll through — with visions of a slow rolling caravan with people tossing out race paraphernalia that really was just a roving sponsor banner with each advertising car blasting competing eurobeats. Next up was the GiroE, an E bike race(?) - we still aren’t sure what the format of this event was as it seemingly tracks alongside the entire tour and had very professional team setups, yet the racers seemed extremely fondo driven and the speed at which the event rolled through seemed like an extended neutral zone. TBD on how this one works.
Lastly, the main event, watching the tour leaders rip through the Rome city streets like it was a local US crit. Due to the circuit style finish and some of the figure 8 turns on the course, we were able to watch the riders come through from multiple different vantage points something like 10 times in total, which really made this the perfect viewing locale. They sure do rip the corners fast for non crit-boys, so getting to see someone new each time made it more memorable.
The peloton goes into the figure eight on the course, which presented excellent viewing opportunities from multiple vantages.
There was also a fun surprise and top cycling experience that I finally got to check off my bucket list: seeing fellow Manx man Cav mid-stage, sitting with his teammates ahead of the field sprint. Although we didn’t get to see the actual finish in person - instead we were sitting at a bar having a delicious spritz and watching GCN - it was still a heartwarming victory.
A highlight of the day was watching confused tourists and frustrated Italians respond to the road closures, especially when those reactions involved this police officer that threatened to whack tourists with the indicator in her left hand in between puffs of her cigarette.
The Full Giro d’Italia Finale in Rome Gallery by Matt
Lisa has been riding and racing nearly all bike disciplines for over 10 years and was co-founder and manager of the former CityMD Women's Racing Team before its merger with To Be Determined, former board member of the CRCA, and always planning her next travel adventure or squeezing her fat bulldog just a little too tight.
