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2022 Giro d’Italia Donne to have €250,000 prize purse, two hours of daily live coverage

Race organizer unveils 2022 route with a trio of mountain stages set to decide the overall winner.

March 10, 2022 Sadhbh O'Shea

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The Giro d’Italia Donne has unveiled its 2022 route and a record €250,000 prize purse.

As well as more money, race organizer PMG Sport — which took over the race in 2021 — has promised that there will be up to two hours of daily live television coverage, up from the approximately 30 minutes shown each day during the 2021 race. A deal has been struck with Discovery/ Eurosport as well as Italian broadcaster RAI to show the race.

The new prize pot is five times the amount that was allocated for the 2021 race and matches the money on offer for the debut Tour de France Femmes later in the summer. From the grand total, €50,000 will go to the overall winner.

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The improvements to television and prize money come as the race returns to the WorldTour calendar after it was demoted from the top tier for last season.

“The well-deserved return to the UCI Women’s World Tour of the Giro Donne is an important international result that honors, first of all, the high sporting quality of the competing athletes, the true heritage of this historic race, together with our commitment to make the most of it, as organizers, producers, and distributors,” PMG Sport general manager Roberto Ruini said.

“If in 2021 bringing the Giro Donne back to the WWT races was the main objective for us, this year we intend to further accelerate the process of growth and enhancement of this memorable competition to make it one of the great and most important sporting events of the year, expanding its national and international echo.

“Commitment and passion are guiding our work in the organization of the Giro Donne 2022 with great technical, sporting, and organizational value to get the best result for everyone, first of all for all the athletes involved and for the increasingly large and passionate public.”

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A Sardinian start

While the Giro d’Italia Donne is no longer the only women’s grand tour on the calendar, following the introduction of the Tour de France Femmes for 2022, it is still the longest race of the year at 10 stages.

This year’s route will start June 30 with a 4.7km individual time trial in Sardinia. Staying on the island for another day, stage two will head up the east of Sardinia with a 117.3 hilly ride from Villasimius to Tortolì.

A third day will be spent in Sardinia with a 112.7km sprint stage from Dorgali to Olbia before a rare rest day to allow the riders to get back to mainland Italy.

As the race resumes, the mountains will beckon. Stage 4, which starts and finishes in Casena, gives the peloton a small taste of climbing and will see the riders tackle three classified climbs. Another sprint stage comes the following day with a 123.4km ride from Carpi to Reggio Emilia.

Crossing over the halfway point of the race, stage six is another hilly affair from Sarnico to Bergamo with several short and steep climbs along the route.

The big mountains arrive on stage 7 with a 113.2km stage that starts in Prevalle and finishes with a summit on the Passi del Manica. At 1,600 meters, it is the highest point of the entire race.

The climbing doesn’t stop there, and stage 8 takes the peloton 92.2 kilometers from Rovereto to Aldeno, taking in two major climbs. The penultimate stage from San Michele all’Adige to San Lorenzo Dorsino is also packed with mountains and takes in the Passo Daone, which tops out at 1,200 meters.

This trio of mountain stages will decide the overall classification before a fast and furious sprint finish into Padua on the final day.

Some 13 of the 14 WorldTeams have been confirmed for the race with just Human Powered Health missing from the start list. Meanwhile, 11 continental squads have been selected for the race.

The continental teams are Valcar-Travel & Service, Ceratizit-WNT, Bizkaia- Durango, Cofidis Women, Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria, Colombia Tierra de Atletas GW Shimano, Team Mendelspeck, Servetto-Makhymo-Beltrami TSA, Top Girls Fassa Bortolo, Aromitalia Basso Bikes Vaiano, and BePink.