Grand Tour racing season is finally upon us with the 2024 Giro d’Italia well underway, as the peloton takes on three weeks of racing from Piemonte to Rome.
The riders will take on two time trials, eight mountain stages, and plenty of hilly stages and sprints as the biggest GC names do battle to determine the 107th champion of La Corsa Rosa.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) makes his Giro debut as the overwhelming favourite to take home the maglia rosa, though he will face competition from other podium favourites including Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).
The Slovenian quickly stamped his authority on the Corsa Rosa on stage 2 by winning at the summit finish in Oropa. His 45-second lead has been safe leading into the next major test for the overall contenders, Friday’s stage 7 – the 40.6km individual time trial from Foligno to Perugia.
Other big GC names lining up to take on the tough, mountainous route as well as Pogačar include Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease A Bike), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious), Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan), and Nairo Quintana (Movistar).
Sprint favourites taking on the race include Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Caleb Ewan (Jayco-AlUla), Fabio Jakobsen (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease A Bike), Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), and Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), while other star riders include Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease A Bike), and Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep).
After the hilly first two stages, the sprinters had their day for two stages with Merlier and Milan each winning one before the breakaway stayed clear on stage 5, won by Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis).
The gravel sectors on stage 6 had no effect on the GC, with Pelayo Sanchez (Movistar) winning from a three-man breakaway. The next two stages – a 40.6km time trial and a summit finish at Prato di Tivo – will be critical for the overall standings, so don’t miss a minute! Read on to find out how to watch the race.
Cyclingnews will be bringing you full reports, results, news, interviews, and analysis throughout the races. Read on to find out how to watch the racing action via live stream, no matter your location, with NordVPN.
How to watch the Giro d’Italia for free
The 2024 Giro d’Italia will be aired for free in several countries around the world, including S4C in Wales, EITB in the Basque Country, VTM in Belgium, SBS in Australia, and RAI in Italy.
If you live or are on holiday in those countries then enjoy the month of racing with no subscription fees to pay. However, if you’re away from home on holiday during the racing then it’s possible to keep up with the racing without resorting to shelling out for a local streaming subscription.
A VPN could solve your problem, and we have all the information on how to watch the action using a VPN below.
How to watch the Giro d’Italia in the USA & Canada
The 2024 Giro d’Italia will be aired by Max in the USA. A subscription to the service will set you back $10 per month or $100 per year with ads, $16/$150 for an ad-free experience, or $200 per year for the ‘Ultimate’ package, which includes additional devices and 4k resolution where available.
Currently users do not need to pay for the B/R Sports add-on, which costs an extra $10 per month, but that could change in the future.
The 2024 Giro d’Italia will be aired by FloBikes in Canada. A subscription to the streaming service will set you back CAN$150 for the year or CAN$29.99 on a monthly basis.
How to watch the Giro d’Italia in the UK
In the UK, live coverage of the 2024 Giro d’Italia will be broadcast via Eurosport and Discovery+.
A ‘standard’ subscription to Discovery+, which includes Eurosport’s cycling coverage, will set you back £6.99 per month or £59.99 per year. The package includes year-round cycling streams as well as other live sports, including snooker, tennis, motorsports, the Paris Olympic Games, and more.
A premium subscription, which includes all that plus TNT Sports (Premier League, Champions League and Europa League football plus rugby, wrestling, UFC, and MotoGP) costs an additional £29.99 per month.
Welsh language broadcaster S4C will be showing the race, too. Daily live coverage is available via their TV channel or via their online streaming service, S4C Clic.
How to watch the Giro d’Italia in Australia
In Australia, the 2024 Giro d’Italia will be broadcast live and in full by the free-to-air channel SBS. The race is also set to be available on SBS on Demand – both live and in catch-up mode – if the middle of the night viewing in Australia doesn’t work for you.
Watch live cycling on any streams
If you are outside of your home region and need to access your live streaming services to watch the action, you may find your access to be geo-restricted.
In this case, a VPN service will come in handy, allowing your computer to pretend it’s home and let you log into your streaming accounts to catch all of the racing action.
Our colleagues at TechRadarthoroughly tested several VPN services and came up with a few great recommendations below.
There are a couple other very good options that are safe, reliable and offer good bandwidth for streaming sports. Check out two other top options below – ExpressVPN and the best budget option, Surfshark.
Giro d’Italia schedule
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Giro d’Italia
Date
Stage
Distance
Stage Times (CET)
Thursday May 9, 2024
Stage 6: Torre del Lago Puccini – Rapolano Terme
180km
12:45 – 17:15
Friday May 10, 2024
Stage 7: Foligno – Perugia (TT)
40.6km
13:00 – 17:15
Saturday May 11, 2024
Stage 8: Spoleto – Prati di Tivo
152km
12:30 – 17:15
Sunday May 12, 2024
Stage 9: Avezzano – Napoli
214km
12:00 – 17:15
Tuesday May 14, 2024
Stage 10: Pompei – Cusano Mutri
142km
13:05 – 17:15
Wednesday May 15, 2024
Stage 11: Foiano di Val Fortore – Francavilla al Mare
207km
12:05 – 17:15
Thursday May 16, 2024
Stage 12: Martinsicuro – Fano
193km
12:25 – 17:15
Friday May 17, 2024
Stage 13: Riccione – Cento
179km
13:00- 17:15
Saturday May 18, 2024
Stage 14: Castiglione delle Stiviere – Desenzano del Garda (TT)
