The first Grand Tour of 2026, the Giro d’Italia gets underway on Friday 8 May with its Grande Partenza taking place in Bulgaria for the first time. The 109th edition of the Giro will be fought out over 3,459km of road and 49,150m of climbing en route to the now-traditional processional final stage in Rome, where a successor to last year’s winner Simon Yates will be crowned. Yates’ surprise retirement on the eve of the 2026 season means he will not defend his title , but there are two former winners and two further podium finishers on the provisional start list, with Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike the hot favourite to seal the one Grand Tour winner’s jersey he has yet to claim, after two maillots jaunes and one maillot rojo. Pure climbers will be pleased to see just one individual time trial on the menu, while there’s something for everyone on a varied route: seven summit finishes, eight flat stages for the sprinters, and seven so-called ‘medium mountain’ days earmarked for breakaway artists.…