2023 Giro Donne

The 2023 Giro Donne was the 34th edition of the Giro Donne, a women's road cycling stage race that took place in Italy. The race began on the 30 June and ended on 9 July 2023. It was the 20th race in the 2023 UCI Women's World Tour calendar.

The race was won by Annemiek van Vleuten of Movistar Team for the fourth time, beating Juliette Labous by nearly four minutes. Van Vleuten also won the points and mountains classifications, with Gaia Realini winning the youth classification and the Italian rider classification.

Teams
24 teams participated in the race. Each team had seven riders, one more than the 2022 edition. All 15 UCI Women's WorldTeams were automatically invited. They were joined by 9 UCI Women's Continental Teams selected by organisers PMG Sport/Starlight. The teams were announced on 25 May 2023.

UCI Women's WorldTeams



UCI Women's Continental Teams


 * Born To Win-Zhiraf-G20
 * GB Junior Team Piemonte
 * Born To Win-Zhiraf-G20
 * GB Junior Team Piemonte
 * Born To Win-Zhiraf-G20
 * GB Junior Team Piemonte

Route
In May 2023, the route was announced by organisers PMG Sport/Starlight. The race started in Tuscany with an individual time trial, before heading north-west through the Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont, Liguria regions. After seven stages, the race transferred to Sardinia for the last two stages. The announcement of the route was criticised, taking place around 1 month prior to the event. The route itself was also criticised, with a drop in the total number of stages and stage length compared to previous editions.

As with the previous editions, the route required a waiver from the Union Cycliste Internationale, as Women's WorldTour races have a maximum race length of six days.

Summary
Prior to the race, three-time winner Annemiek van Vleuten of Movistar Team was considered the favourite for the victory, with media noting that riders such as Gaia Realini and Elisa Longo Borghini of Lidl–Trek, Mavi Garcia of Liv Racing TeqFind and Niamh Fisher-Black of SD Worx would also be contenders. Marta Bastianelli of UAE Team ADQ will retire from professional cycling following her home race.

One day prior to the event, an official start list was not available. The organisation of the race was criticised by Lizzie Deignan, noting the financial difficulties of the organiser.

Stage 1

 * 30 June 2023 — Chianciano, 4.4 km (ITT)

The first stage of the 2023 Giro d'Italia Donne featured an individual time trial (ITT) with a length of 4.4 km around Chianciano Terme in Tuscany. Heavy rain and thunderstorms affected the stage, with multiple riders crashing including Mavi Garcia and Chloé Dygert of Canyon–SRAM - with Dygert still managing to set the fastest time. 2022 winner van Vleuten then beat Dygert, before the organisers called for a pause due to the weather. Resuming around 20 minutes later, Letizia Paternoster of Team Jayco-AlUla then beat van Vleuten's time by five-hundredths of a second.

With over 100 riders remaining, the organisers paused the stage again due to standing water on the roads and full storm drains. The stage was eventually cancelled on the grounds of rider safety using the Extreme Weather Protocol. van Vlueten called the stage "a lottery" and that it was good that the stage had been cancelled.

All times set were disregarded, and no classification jerseys were awarded. The race therefore started on stage 2 on Saturday 1 July.

Stage 2

 * 1 July 2023 — Bagno a Ripoli to Marradi, 102.1 km

Stage 3

 * 2 July 2023 — Formigine to Modena, 118.2 km

The third stage was neutralised at 1 km from the finish line for safety reasons. Times for the general classification were taken from that point, and the stage had no time bonuses.

Stage 4

 * 3 July 2023 — Fidenza to Borgo Val di Taro, 134 km

Stage 5

 * 4 July 2023 — Salassa to Ceres, 103.3 km

Stage 6

 * 5 July 2023 — Canelli to Canelli, 104.4 km

Stage 7

 * 6 July 2023 — Albenga to Alassio, 109.1 km

Rest day

 * 7 July 2023 — Sardinia

Stage 8

 * 8 July 2023 — Nuoro to Sassari, 125.7 km

Stage 9

 * 9 July 2023 — Sassari to Olbia, 126.8 km

Broadcasting
Prior to the race, organisers PMG Sport/Starlight stated that they could not afford the €730,000 cost of TV coverage, which is required for the UCI Women's World Tour. Media reports suggested that without TV coverage, the race could be cancelled. Subsequently, agreement was made between the Italian Cycling Federation and Italian national broadcaster RAI to broadcast the race. CyclingNews reported that each stage would have "roughly one hour" of live coverage on RAI, Eurosport and Global Cycling Network.