Monday 26 May 2014 at 22h22

After the additional information Amaury Sport Organisation provided yesterday about the start of the Tour de France 2015 in The Netherlands, it was announced today that the next year, in 2016, it'll be the turn of the Tour of Italy to visit the country which already saw the start of the Giro d'Italia 2010*.

The start city has not yet been confirmed, but it seems that Den Bosch^#, which also organised the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in 1996**, is the best candidate.

The start of the Giro d'Italia 2016 in The Netherlands, negociated by Libéma Profcycling, like in 2010

Libéma Profcycling, a company which is pretty unknown to the general public, today announced it has negociated the Grande Partenza of the Giro d'Italia 2016 in The Netherlands.

Not many people know that company (even in The Netherlands), but the guy behind the negociations who already managed to get the start of the Giro 2010, is known by many. Indeed, Libéma Profcycling's press release indicates that an agreement was signed with RCS Sport, the organisor of the Giro d'Italia after negociations led by Cees Priem, a former professional cyclist (1973 till 1987) and directeur sportif in the TVM cycling team.

The press release also reminds of the big popular success we saw at the start of the Giro d'Italia in 2010, with one million spectators along the roads. After the success in Ireland with the start of the Giro d'Italia 2014 2 weeks ago, there should thus be another success for the next start abroad in 2016 (we currently observe one start out of two to be abroad for the Italian Grand Tour).

Starting in Den Bosch?

Apparently there's not yet been a confirmation of the exact start location by the Giro organisor but the rumours all point to the city Den Bosch in the south of The Netherlands.

Indeed, Libéma Profcycling's press release precised that there are several candidates for the stage starts and finishes, but according to the local radio/TV station Omroep Brabant someone from the city of Den Bosch would have confirmed that it'll indeed be the capital of Noord-Brabant which will see the pink race start in 2016. According to this spokesman there's an agreement between the city and the organisor and it now just needs to be confirmed by the city counsel.

However, the province of Noord-Brabant is less affirmative and indicates that there've indeed been discussions with the city Den Bosch but that there'll be similar exchanges with other cities of this province, and their conclusion thus is: nothing has been decided yet concerning the start location.

As a conclusion, this means that the start will probably be in Den Bosch and that even if that doesn't get confirmed, the city will be one of the start or finish cities of one of the stages in The Netherlands.

* with the first 3 stages starting in the capital, Amsterdam (Amsterdam > Amsterdam as a time trial, Amsterdam > Utrecht and Amsterdam > Middelburg); see the Giro d'Italia 2010 race route on Google Maps for more information

** with a prologue in Den Bosch, a stage in line starting and finishing in Den Bosch and a stage between Den Bosch and Wasquehal

# the official name of Den Bosch is 's-Hertogenbosch. Den Bosch is the capital of the Noord-Brabant province, in the south of The Netherlands

>> source photo article illustration background: © Bert Kaufmann, shared under the Creative Commons license, modifications: sky coloured in pink + added logo and "2016" mention

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Giro d Italia | Giro d'Italia 2016

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