The 2009 route of the much anticipated Giro d’Italia has been announced.  The Giro is held May 9th to May 31st over 3395.5 kilometers.  The starting lineup is pretty great this year with “Ivan Basso, Carlos Sastre, Gilberto Simoni, Danilo Di Luca, Marzio Bruseghin, Denis Menchov and others”.

Cyclingnews.com was particularly interested in a longer mid-race time trial.

The biggest curiosity of the 2009 route is the longer than normal time trial mid-race. The stage from Sestri Levante to Riomaggiore has a distance of 61.7 kilometres, the longest in 13 years and nearly double the ‘long’ time trial of 2008.

Another site covering the Giro well is steephill.tv, with quite a few related links, and details of each stage.