AAVC Giro d'Italia Women Game Starts on Saturday!
Laurens De Jong
Let's all play!
It is time to play the 2026 AAVC Giro d'Italia Women Game. Because it was so early, I managed to miss the Vuelta a España Femenina. Our loss — it was a terrific race. Let’s make up for that loss by doubling the number of participants in the Giro women’s race.
Never played before? TL;DR? Go to the entry form HERE and pick your 18 riders for this year's Giro d'Italia Women game. If you're concerned about rules, you can find them HERE. Register as soon as possible, preferably before the race starts on May 30. But many of you know that if you're demonstrably honest, I will let you play even if you're late. If you're late and I find your starting list questionable, then I will ask questions.
To all the new recruits, and everyone who hasn’t played in the past because they thought you have to be an expert: and to all our friends outside the Ann Arbor Velo Club: just give this game a go. Read the links below and pick 18 riders. Cycling is a team sport, playing this game is a team sport. We all enjoy the outcome, regardless of who wins. The more teams we have, the more we get to follow riders that otherwise would go unnoticed.
If you play the game, you'll also receive the daily award*-winning AAVC Stage Reports. If you want to receive those but don't want to actually pick your 18 favorite riders, then you can be added to the mailing list HERE.
Helpful links and tips.
Startlist on Pro Cyclist Stats (it’s what I use to create the registration form): https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/giro-d-italia-women/2026/startlist
PCS also uses their own ranking to break down the GC contenders, sprinters, other experts. It can be misleading because past success may not indicate that a rider is peaking for the Giro. Use this as a general guide to start selecting your riders:
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/giro-d-italia-women/2026/startlist/top-gc-riders
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/giro-d-italia-women/2026/startlist/sprinters
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/giro-d-italia-women/2026/startlist/tt-specialists
The Giro d’Italia Women is practically speaking the oldest women’s Grand Tour. This is the 37th edition and traditionally the hardest of the three. When you pick your riders, remember that the women race only nine stages. Early wins matter — we’ll start with two sprint stages, so bring a good number of sprinters. Stage 3 will have a few climbs, but possibly not enough to drop all the sprinters. Stage 4 then will be the individual time trial, but it is a climbing time trial. The second half of the race will be for the climbers, with the magnificent Colle delle Finestre coming up in stage 8.
This looks like it’s going to be a great Giro. As always, though, previews are difficult to find. https://procyclinguk.com/2026-giro-ditalia-women-race-preview-nine-stages-an-uphill-time-trial-alpine-climbs/ starts with a breakdown of all nine stages, an in-depth look into all kinds of riders, and a conclusion with just the top three GC contenders. It’s a bit of a read, it may help, though.
If you speak French, or know how to use Google Translate — or even if you can just recognize boldfaced rider’s names — then you can peek at https://www.velofute.com/post/giro-d-italia-women-2026-parcours-engag%C3%A9s-et-favoris-de-la-37e-%C3%A9dition.
I found a few more stories that seemed to be AI-generated — we might as well skip over those.
Over on YouTube, there’s a rare “preview” on For the Love of Cycling: https://youtu.be/ca9SRQFBa5c — but two-thirds of it is Lizzie Deignan and Elisa Longo Borghini looking back at previous races. Still worth a listen!
My thought is that if you can't think of 18 riders, make sure you play the game to learn more about pro cycling. Let's all play!
Enter your 18 riders using the Google Form HERE as soon as possible.
Pedalare, donne! Pedalare!
-laurens
* No actual award has ever been given.